Analyses and Blog at an End

Posted on August 21, 2011 by mary

The weather station is now connected to my partner’s computer. The web site will continue to run, but don’t expect updates overnight. Once a month I will update the summary table and the rain days for the month information but will not be writing up any analyses.

The most recent summary table is in place on the Data Tables page and shows a 2-inch over average rainfall for the month of July. Likewise, the Rain Days page is up to date.

It’s been fun working on the site, but life is just too full now to continue. I hope you will continue to find the web site itself of some use.

Ciao, Mary

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Aguacerros Expected Today

Posted on July 24, 2011 by mary

The monsoon trough is merging with the ITCZ in the Pacific this morning.

This morning while checking the rain gauge (no rain yesterday), I saw a fog bank down in the lowlands.

Hidromet predicts aguacerros across the country this afternoon. It looks like we’re moving out of whatever Santiago Summer we might have had.

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Sunrise Shower

Posted on July 21, 2011 by mary

The monsoon trough is now in the Pacific.

Whether coincidence or not, we had another sunrise shower this morning. Tapering off as I write.

The forecast from Hidromet is for a typical rainy season day – cloudy in the morning, showers in the afternoon and evening.

 

 

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Bye-Bye Low

Posted on July 18, 2011 by mary

That monsoon trough low has moved away.

 

 

And the Pacific is pretty clear in our area right now.

But do please note those tropical waves in the Caribbean Synoptic Chart moving in our direction. Plus that rather ominous note at the upper right. Hmm.

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Low, Rain

Posted on July 16, 2011 by mary

The low pressure system associated with the monsoon trough has been hanging around for a few days.

It was cloudy all day on the 14th, with rain starting at about 2 PM and then continuing steadily through the night and through all day yesterday, finally tapering off in the wee hours this morning. Here’s yesterday’s graph from the WeatherHawk.

Not a heavy rain, but persistent.

At 15.5 inches so far for the month, we’re on our way to a higher than average rainfall for July. Our 18-year average is 18 inches for July.

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June Report and July Rain

Posted on July 2, 2011 by mary

The June Report is up. The XXXIII Climate Forum for Central America made, in April, a remarkably accurate prediction for rainfall in Chiriqui during the months of May through July. As you’ll see in the report, both May and June records showed exactly what they thought will happen. If they’re right for July as well, their batting average will be 100%.

Meantime, we’re moving into the daily patterns we expect during the rainy season. Although rain usually slacks off in July, when it does arrive, it moves up from the south (from the Pacific). We sometimes hear it marching up the mountain. Yesterday we saw this:

The typical rainy season shelf of clouds hanging out over the mountain. Although it’s not clear in this photo, we were able to see the Chiriqui lowlands, including Mesa Chercha, in the white area below the rain cloud.

About 20 minutes after this photo was taken, it started raining at our place. We had 0.6 inches of rain from that episode.

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Summer Solstice

Posted on June 21, 2011 by mary

Summer solstice is today. The day is the longest in the year for us in Panama, as it is elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, but we are close enough to the equator that the difference in daylength is not huge. Six months from now our days will be about an hour shorter than today, whereas in, say, Washington, D.C., that day six months from now will be about 5 and a half hours shorter than today.

This information comes from a site called Gaisma.com, and here’s the chart for David, Panama.

An article in the Washington Post today explains the sun’s path and why we have a solstice and a blog post at accuweather explains why we have seasons and it gives us this additional neat piece of information: solstice is Latin for “the sun stands still.”

Hidromet predicts rain for us this afternoon.

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Rain Yesterday, Cloudy Today

Posted on June 17, 2011 by mary

We did have rain yesterday, as predicted. Just over an inch. The satellite image looks less ferocious than it did yesterday.

And Hidromet is predicting a cloudy, not rainy, day for us in Chiriqui.

The monsoon trof is mostly in the Caribbean. Note the ITCZ is labeled as being in the Atlantic, off South America.

Note also, the Tropical Wave line passing through the Caribbean. Here’s what Hidromet has to say about that [lightly edited translation]:

The passage of tropical waves over the Caribbean Sea, is a decisive factor for the generation of light to moderate rainfall intensities over the country, these will depend on the strengthening of systems to the south of the Basin, the first tropical waves usually moving quickly, and slowing deeper into the region. They can cause significant amounts of rain in the mountains.

 

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Monsoon Trof and More

Posted on June 16, 2011 by mary

The monsoon trof (meteorology-speak for trough) is now well north of us.

But the AVN color satellite shows lots of stormy activity in the Pacific.

Hidromet is predicting intervals of stormy rain this afternoon for Chiriqui. Looks like a safe bet.

 

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Double Red Lines

Posted on June 15, 2011 by mary

The Caribbean Synoptic Chart shows that yesterday’s low pressure system has moved west and into the Pacific.

However, that double red line, upon which the low pressure system is sitting, moves right through our area.

I first noticed this double red line at the beginning of the month, when I was paying attention to rain. That day, it was labeled monsoon trof and I made note of that and just left it there. I made a mental note, though, that the double red lines were similar to the symbol for the Intertropical Convergence Zone – the difference is that the ITCZ has hatched lines between the solid red lines.

So today I looked up monsoon trof and found it is a standard meteorological abbreviation for monsoon trough. It is “that portion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which extends into or through a monsoon circulation.” (wikipedia) I found the following remark particularly interesting:

The term “monsoon trough” is most commonly used in monsoonal regions of the Western Pacific such as Asia and Australia. The migration of the ITCZ/monsoon trough into a landmass heralds the beginning of the annual rainy season during summer months. Depressions and tropical cyclones often form in the vicinity of the monsoon trough, with each capable of producing a year’s worth of rainfall in a relatively short time frame.

So, here we are. The beginning of the rainy season. It’s official.

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