February was just a touch warmer than January, a little less humid, sunnier, and a bit windier. Rainfall for the month was a touch above average, but nowhere near the recorded maximum for February, which is 7.1 inches. (You’ll note I’ve added a “16-year average” column to the summary table for easy reference.)
February was sunnier (solar input was higher by 28 watts/cm2) because of less cloud cover, which is also shown in the lower humidity (by about 8%), both of which occurred despite having 4 more days of rain in February than in January.
Early in February, we had a short “howling wind” episode (see the “Howling Wind” blog post for details), during which the wind boxed the compass in a short period of time. Despite that episode, both average wind and maximum wind velocities for this February were about the same as for 2010 and considerably less than for 2009.
Our prevailing wind comes from a southerly direction (180 degrees on the compass), year-round.
But when you zero-in on that direction a little, you see from our data so far that we have a bit of a seasonal variation in that direction.
During the driest part of the dry season, January and February, the wind tends to come from closer to the south-southeast (southeast = 135 degrees; south-southeast =158 degrees) than from due south. It then tends back to coming from the south during the transition months of April and May. During the height of the rainy season – June through October – the wind comes from between 170 and 175 degrees and then in the transition months of November and December, it arrives again from nearly due south.
If you look at the terrain view of the google map shown on our home page, you’ll see that there’s not a lot of wiggle room for wind reaching us from the Pacific Ocean (which is to our south). Potrerillos is near the top of a U-shaped rising plain leading to Volcan Baru.
Sometimes the wind will come down the mountain, as it did yesterday, March 1, and bring rain with it. Episodes like that are more likely to occur in the dry season or in transitional months than in the rainy season. The Intertropical Convergence Zone tends to be south of Panama during these months, and the Atlantic Trade Winds rush across Panama toward that ITCZ. In so doing, they may encounter rain clouds on the mountain tops, or low pressure systems somewhere along the Caribbean side of Panama, and deliver that moisture (from a northerly direction) down the mountain to us.
In summary, it seems fair to say that our February this year was about average, and a pleasant one at that.
This just in: The February report from Palmira has been posted at Boquete Weather Watchers. It includes a link to a fuller discussion of wind in our area than was covered here as well as some updated information on La Niña. Nice report!
