Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - December 2023 & Year End Review

(Click on images to enlarge).

During December, visits to this blog were received from the following 20 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.  In addition, 3 visits were received in December from unidentified locations (which in theory could be the same location). For more information on unidentified locations and where they might be see my blog post on August 4, 2023.

From the time I first started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received rose to 136 in December. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions such as Hong Kong. The latest country is Kenya which is located in East Africa. The visit was from Nairobi, Kenya's capital city.

During 2023 as a whole, visits were received from 35 identifiable countries and non-independent jurisdictions. As of year end, the total number of visits to this blog approached 52,000 according to an app named RevolverMaps. In the right hand sidebar of my blog, the number indicates roughly 27000+ visitors. However, the latter number is for the period from Sep. 29, 2016 to date and does not include visitors during the earlier period from Nov. 13, 2012 to Sep. 29, 2016. The following projection produced using RevolverMaps indicates with red dots locations from where visits have been received since Sep. 29, 2016:

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

There were many days which were overcast virtually all day long.  However, except for a couple of those days the overcast produced no rain. On the few days when it did rain, it typically occurred in the afternoons and was preceded by mornings with broken clouds.

For the year as a whole and as the following chart illustrates, the total amount of rainfall in 2023 was significantly less than that in 2022.

As reported in the The Tico Times: "Due to the El Niño phenomenon, Costa Rica experienced lower than normal rainfall in 2023 across most of the country, ending the year with a precipitation deficit in almost all regions."

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - January 2021

During January, visits to this blog were received from the following 13 countries and Hong Kong:

There were no new countries and the overall total since November 2012 remains at 130 countries.

My video "Landing at Juan Santamaría Airport, Costa Rica" posted to YouTube and to my blog on August 26, 2017 still attracts interest.  Since July 2019 the number of YouTube views has risen from over 4400 views to over 6400 views. Undoubtedly, most views are by persons accessing the video directly and not indirectly via the blog post.

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

The average daytime high temperature in January this year was about the same as last year. However, the average daytime low temperature was about 2°F (1.1 °C) cooler than last year.

We are in the midst of the dry season, so rainfall was minimal - only 1 day with measurable rain. This compares with 3 days having measurable rain in January 2020. However the amount of rain in January this year, although not very much, was more than 3.5 times that measured in January 2020.

The real weather story to be taken from January is high winds. While these winds, known as Papagayo Winds, are a regular occurrence at this time of year, their strength was unusually powerful in our experience. As noted in my blog post on January 29, 2021, they did some damage to our house. I might add that they also took down a fairly large tree in an empty lot behind our house. Here is a photo of the aftermath showing the tree stump and a few remaining log bits cut from the tree after it fell.

Part of our house appears in the background. Had the tree fallen towards the house, it probably would have come close to the property line but would not have reached the house.

(Click on images to enlarge).

Eyes on Costa Rica - Update

This follows my blog entry on June 10, 2013. At that time, more than 60 countries from where people were visiting this blog were identified. The number has now risen to over 80. The newest countries or quasi-countries include Belize, Bermuda, Curaçao, Martinique, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Peru, Armenia, Bulgaria, Ireland, Serbia, Hong Kong, Iraq, South Korea, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.

In addition, there has been at least one visit from the U.S. Army Post Office (APO) for the Armed Forces Europe, and more from “ - - - ” (no identified place, no identified region, and no identified country).

The mystery of who or what “ - - - ” might be has now been partly solved. In Internet jargon, they are “anonymous proxies” flying or trying to fly under the radar. On the globe which appears in the sidebar of this blog, they are indicated by the red dot which appears at Latitude 0°, Longitude 0° (about 350 miles southeast off the coast of Ghana in the Gulf of Guinea).

Costa Rica is obviously in the eyes of the world.

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