Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - May 2024

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During May, visits to this blog were received from the following 14 countries and 1 unidentified location:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012. With regard to the unidentified location, see my blog post on August 4, 2023.

From the time I started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 136. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - e.g. the U.S. Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States from which 1 visit has been received.

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The following is a summary of weather for May in the area where we live:

The daytime high temperatures are shade temperatures. The average high in May this year was slightly lower than May last year. At the same time, total rainfall during May this year was higher (and fortunately so) than May last year.

Until the beginning of May, the total rainfall this year was about 42% less than in 2023 and about 72% less than in 2022. This behavior can be attributed to the El Niño climate pattern and is not unique to our area. Reduced rainfall and, in some areas, outright drought conditions developed throughout the country.

The situation recently reached a tipping point. On May 7, the Costa Rica Institute of Electricity (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) aka ICE (pronounced "ee-say" in Spanish) announced that power rationing with circulating power-outs would begin on May 13 unless depleted water reservoirs of the country's hydroelectric dams were replenished. If things did not improve, we were scheduled to lose power from 1300 hrs to 1600 hrs each day. Others in different parts of Costa Rica may have been scheduled differently.

But, it never happened. Enough rain came to save the day. As the following chart indicates, the rainfall in our area in 2024 is on a trajectory surpassing that in 2023.

Moreover, we understand that the undesirable El Niño climate pattern will soon be drawing to an end.

Information on current and recent weather conditions, climate change and more in various parts of Costa Rica can be obtained from the website of IMN: Instituto Meteorológico Nacional de Costa Rica (Spanish) or National Institute of Meteorology (English). IMN also has a Facebook page which may be of interest.