December 2, 2020

No.140

November 2020
(Back Issues Here)

We had 31.50 inches of rain at the Palmira Arriba Station in November of 2020.  The reports from around the District of Boquete for November generally indicate significant levels of rain.  In general it was a very wet month.

Rainfall for November 2020
Area	Contributors	November 2020	Total 2020
El Santuario	Robert Boyd	16.57	102.07
Barriade Las Flores	Bill Brick	18.05	n/a
Jaramillo Arriba	Steve Sarner	32.78	180.88
Jaramillo Arriba	Mark Heyer	27.00	n/a
Jaramillo Abajo	Don Berkowitz	30.46	217.04
Jaramillo Abajo	Bobi McGann	32.60	207.27
Palo Alto	Nancy Pettersen	19.85	139.75
El Salto Arriba	Rodrigo Marciacq	17.23	84.65
Valle Escondido	Doug Remsen	22.70	n/a
Brisas  Boquetenas	Austin Perry	33.25	237.21
Brisas Boquetenas	Richard Sturtz	29.38	203.06
Los Molinos	Sela Burkholder	31.00	212.35
Los Molinos	Fred Donelson	24.37	181.08
El Encanto (Volcancito)	Brian Baldwin	24.36	n/a
Cerro Verde (Volcancito)	Charlotte Lintz	18.30	111.93
Santa Lucia	Paula Litt	24.42	153.79
Caldera	Chris Mccall	42.52	n/a
Lucero	Michael Mullin	43.97	256.24
Boquete Country Club	Paul Arrandale	28.58	197.31
Palmira Abajo	Betty Gray	24.52	177.43
Palmira Arriba	Lloyd Cripe	31.50	166.81
n/a = not currently available but will be posted when available

The highest amount reported was by Michael Mullin at Lucero with 43.97 inches with a close second reported by Chris Mccall in Caldera with 42.52 inches.  Think about this, almost 4 feet of rain!  That is a lot of water. The lowest reported rainfall for November was reported by Robert Boyd at El Santuario with 16.57 inches.

Here at the Palmira Arriba Station we had 31.50 inches of rain in November.  This is the most rain we have ever seen in November at this station over 14 years of recordings.

The question always is whether or not we had more or less rain than usual?  It sure seemed like we had more. Since only the data can reveal the truth, here is the data:

November Rain Statistics for 14 Years at Palmira Arriba Station

The amount of rain for November 2020 is 2.13 standard deviations above the mean!  Clearly way over normal.

You can check out the data of our station over the past years for yourself.  You can look at the tables in the Climate Section to see what rains we have had in the months of November over the course of 14 years as well as other weather variables.

This month of heavy rain in Panama was a product of all the hurricanes that passed just north of us during November.  Most notable were hurricanes Eta and Iota.  While there were no hurricanes that directly hit Panama, they were close enough that their outer bands dumped lots of moisture on us.  There were floods and landslides associated with these storms throughout Central American to include parts of Panama. 

This image of Eta in early November, which hit Central America very hard, illustrates the massive size of the storm and how the extended bands of the storm impacted Panama as it was striking Nicaragua:

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season (June-November) was very active.  In fact the most active on record.  We experienced a lot of rain because of this active season.  Read all about it here.

This map of the tracks of all the 2020 Atlantic hurricanes illustrates how close some of them came to Panama:

The latest ENSO Cycle Report is saying that "La Niña conditions are present. Equatorial sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are below average from the westcentral to eastern Pacific Ocean. The tropical atmospheric circulation is consistent with La Niña. La Niña is likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2020-21 (~95% chance during January-March) and into spring 2021 (~65% chance during March-May)."

Here is a link to an excellent source for understanding El Niño.  If you need some help with this, give this a read and you will learn a lot about this important weather phenomenon.

The IRI (International Research Institute for Climate and Society) (select South America from the Region menu) is predicting that parts of Panama will have a 60%-70% chance of increased levels of precipitation for the months of December-January-February 2021 (light and dark blue areas).

ETESA's hydrology and meteorology section is predicting that Chiriqui will generally have above normal levels of precipitation in December of 2020. You can read their report and check out the details in the "documents" section at this link. 

The Pandemic continues and is growing.  At the moment the worldometer reports 65,399,019 cases in the world with 1,509,249 deaths and 45,257,715 recovered cases.  The USA has 14,464,889 cases with 281,947 deaths and 8,525,800 recovered cases.  They report 169,339 cases in Panama with 3,114 deaths and 146,576 recovered cases.  Developing vaccines appear promising but once approved the distribution will take many months before generally available. The pandemic is likely to get worse over the next few months.

Hopefully the rains will subside in December but no promises.  I think it best to take good care of the umbrellas and have them handy for continued duty.  Let's hope that Santa will be able to get through the clouds, rain and fog to deliver a Merry Christmas.  High on my wish list is some mildew protection. 

I am however concerned that Rudolph may not be all that useful in guiding the sled/team as the deer are now required to wear protective masks.  This will no doubt interfere with the guidance system.  Fortunately GPS works in the clouds, but since Santa is a bit old fashion, he/she may not have it onboard!

MONITORING CORONAVIRUS STATUS LINKS

Lloyd Cripe

lcripe@boqueteweather.com