Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - July 2025

During July, visits to this blog were received from the following 9 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.

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 137. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - for example Puerto Rico - an unincorporated territory of the United States from which 1 visit has been received.

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

There is a so-called rainy or green season which generally runs from May to November. However, the season is typically interrupted for a few weeks in July and/or August by a so-called little or mini summer (veranito in Spanish).

This year, the little summer began in early July and carried on throughout the month. On several of the days without rain, otherwise calm air was periodically broken by sudden short lived gusts of wind. On days with rain, the rainfall was minimal. The amount was about 1/5 to 1/3 of that measured in July of the previous 3 years. 

During July, there was a fair amount of dust which travelled from the Sahara Desert across the Atlantic Ocean and over Costa Rica. This not only had an adverse effect on air quality but may have suppressed the build up of humidity needed for rainfall.

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.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - June 2020

In June, visits to this blog were received from the following 21 countries:

As with previous months this year, the number of countries for the month of June was high compared to the same month last year.

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

The rainy or "green" season continued with some records so far this year: (1) the most days with measurable rainfall; (2) the most rainfall on any one day; (3) the most rainfall in any one month; and (4) the coldest daily high temperature. The coldest daily high does not appear on the chart but it was a mere 78°F (25.6°C).

The rainfall in June involved 3 days with significant deluges. But they were peanuts compared to a friend who lives in the southern zone of Costa Rica near the Pacific coast. He reported that they had 25 inches (63.5 cm) of rain in the first two weeks of the month (Costa Rican microclimates at work).

On June 25th and 26th we got sideswiped by the Saharan Air Layer - dust that had travelled across the Atlantic and Caribbean from the Sahara Desert in Northern Africa. The highest temperature of the month (88°F / 31.1°C) occurred on the 25th and was accompanied by low humidity (26%). There was a distinctly brownish haze in the atmosphere. To a lesser degree, this lingered on the next day.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - November 2018

During November, visits to this blog were received from 14 identified countries and 1 unidentified country in Europe:

The following is a summary of the weather for the month:

There are only two seasons in Costa Rica - the "green" or rainy season and the dry season. With significantly less rainfall than October, November has signaled the beginning of the dry season. There were fewer rainy days and more sunny days. The minimum overnight low temperature of 60 °F (15.6 °C) was the lowest we have encountered so far where we now live.

There is of course no "winter" season in Costa Rica. But that does not mean that Costa Ricans do not celebrate Christmas including not only with ornaments, lights, Santa Claus images, reindeer images and other visual trappings, but also with Christmas trees (Arboles de Navidad). At least some of the trees are real, not artificial. As reported by Q Costa Rica the real thing comes all the way from Eastern Canada.

May 11, 2018 - Green Season Storm

Yesterday afternoon was the first real rain deluge we have experienced at our new house in Hacienda el Paseo. Over 2.5 inches of rain fell. It doesn’t take long for the land to really green up after the dry season. Here’s a video I made of the storm:

Note: If your browser does not support full screen, then click on the “YouTube” link.

The End of the Green (or Rainy) Season, Costa Rica

Mid-November and we will soon be moving into the dry season for the next six months. But all bets are off for October and November as far as rain goes. I really needed to do a laundry wash today but this morning was overcast so I put it off until we got back from a shopping trip to Atenas.

By then, a bit of sun was peeking out and there was some breeze. So I took a chance and washed bed linen and some other small items. I told Lance, “If you hear, smell or suspect rain - let me know.” Just before 3:00 pm, the rains came down without much warning and they were quite heavy for a short time. We ran outside and brought the laundry inside in record time. I have the small items hanging from our shower curtain rod and this is how I am trying to dry out the sheets:

That big floor fan is really useful for drying out wet floors and bed linen. Why don’t we have a dryer, you say? It didn’t come with our rental house. Most Costa Ricans don’t have one either - they are expensive to use because of electricity costs here. If we did have a dryer, I would only use it a few times a year - such as today. Moving to a foreign country teaches you a lot of new things!

Chicken Pot Pie

It has been raining non-stop all day. Sometimes it comes down as a torrent, other times it is more of a misty Pacific Northwest type of rainfall. In fact, at this time of year in Costa Rica, where we live in the Central Valley, the weather reminds me of our winter weather in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Everything is so lush and green. It has been long sleeve shirts and long pants weather the last few days, as I find it quite cool. We have been running the ceiling fans in order to keep the air moving and help with indoor dampness.

It is definitely chicken pot pie weather - some good old fashioned hearty comfort food. Click here to see the recipe I followed. For the pastry crust, I also used her pastry recipe, which features a very easy method of incorporating the chilled butter into the flour. Those methods of using a pastry blender or two knives to cut in the butter never did work very well for me.

I made two pies. One is for our dinner tonight and the other went over to Diane and John's house. They are flying home to Costa Rica from a trip to Canada, arriving this evening, so they will have something to nosh on if hungry or they can reheat it tomorrow.

I loaded the pies with spinach, peas, broccoli, carrots, onions and garlic, and lots of chicken. From my own herb garden, I picked rosemary, oregano and tarragon and added those, along with salt, pepper and smoked paprika.

Here is how their pie turned out:

 

Some of the gravy leaked out the top but I think that is not a problem, taste wise. Realize that I have a funny little stove (an Atlas) with four heat selections: high, bake, grill and warm. With trial and error and an oven thermometer, I have learned to preheat the oven on "high", put the baking in the oven, turn to "bake", set a timer and then finish on "grill" if the top needs further browning.

June in Costa Rica

We are about a month and a half into the green (or rainy season). The mornings start out sunny and warm and I try to get my laundry done early and out on the line to dry. Everything has really greened up.

Today, we taxied into Atenas to have lunch with our friends Carol and Paul. We ate at Restaurante Antaño and, as usual, we had good food and good service.

Back home and now it is just a bit after 5:30 pm - we had rain earlier - now we are covered in cloud. Sounds from the neighborhood are muted.

 

Weather Review - 2015

Here is a temperature chart and a rainfall chart which illustrate weather conditions over the course of the last year in the Atenas region of Costa Rica. More particularly, and except for a brief period in early October, they illustrate the conditions where we normally live in a neighborhood called Vista Atenas which is a short distance west of the town of Atenas. For the brief period in October, we were house and cat sitting at the home of friends in a neighborhood called Las Cumbres – a short distance east of the town. The significance of east v. west is revealed by the temperature chart.

As the crow flies, the Las Cumbres location is about 3.7 miles (6 km) from our Vista Atenas location. But, the elevation is about 560 feet (170 m) lower. In Costa Rica, lower altitudes are generally reflected by higher daytime high temperatures and that is borne out by the temperature spike circled in red on the above chart.

As I think I have said before, Costa Rica is a country of microclimates. A few miles one way or the other and a few hundred feet up or down can make a significant difference. If you choose to live in Costa Rica for any length of time, then you should carefully choose the location. Where we live in Vista Atenas, the year 'round daytime highs and overnight lows are comfortable. Neither heating nor air conditioning is required. On rare occasions, heat and humidity can combine to produce a marginally uncomfortable "feels like" temperature. In 2015, that may have happened three or four times.

 

Costa Rica has two seasons: a wet or “green” season and a dry season. In our area, the dry season normally extends from about mid November of one year to late April or early May of the next. The above chart shows virtually no rain until late April and, excluding an exceptional one day deluge, almost no rain in December. However, in 2015, the wet season was drier than normal. Total rainfall was about 10 inches less than 2014. If the December deluge never happened, then the shortfall would be almost 13 inches less. It must be el niño at work – or maybe even climate change.

 

Early Morning Bird Chorus

With the end of the month of March coming up, and the beginning of April probably heralding in the "green" season (we have only two seasons here), the bird life around us has become very active song-wise. I guess the breeding season has started.

The yiguirro (or clay-colored robin) is Costa Rica's National Bird and we have a lot of them around our house. One in particular starts singing while it is still dark outside, around 4:00 a.m.

I went outside the other morning when it was just getting light and, mindful of snakes, took some video footage of our singing alarm clocks.

Here is a photo we took of a clay-colored robin in our yard:

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Restaurants and the Dry Season

Last Thursday, we met friends and enjoyed bocas and wine at Grego's, a bar and restaurant on highway 3 not far from Atenas.  Service and food is excellent. We sat outside on the covered patio, enjoyed the company, the weather and chatting with everyone.

It's close enough that we can walk down there, but thank goodness our friends drive us home (or we call a taxi) because it's all uphill going back to our house.

We now know why this is called the dry season - no rain since early November. Today I walked up the hill behind our house where our banana trees are and the ground is cracked and so dry. Everything was rustling in the wind and there is a lot of wind. The mango tree is flowering but also throwing tiny mangoes on the ground so I expect that is some sort of normal culling? The tree is huge and old and has survived for a long time so I guess it knows what it is doing.

After several months of clear blue skies all day long, now we notice that clouds are forming in the early afternoon. They look like they could be rain clouds, but not a drop falls and then they disappear in the late afternoon. I think we are experiencing the gradual transition into the green season.

Bleach - A Costa Rican's Best Friend

Here in Atenas, we have been experiencing the October green season for about the last two weeks. Rain and lots of it - torrential at times - and for most of the days. My tomatoes are kaput I think but I'll just start new ones in a couple of weeks.

Doing laundry was a challenge. I have a washer, but no dryer. Because of the cost of electricity, not many people have dryers. Why bother when most of the time you can use the power of sun and wind to quickly dry clothes. The spinner on my washer really removes a lot of the rinse water.

I would hold off doing a wash until it looked like the day might give me an hour or so in the morning when I could hang clothes on the line. But they never really dried fully and so I would resort to this:

This worked not too bad. We have an area at one side of the house where a few wash lines are set up and protected under the very wide eaves but the damp air prevents much drying.

When I do washing, I always use bleach as it kills mould spores as does using cold water. We also keep a spray bottle filled with a diluted bleach mixture to use when cleaning the shower.

Got a bit of a shock the other day when I was going through clothing hanging in the closet - pulled out two suit jackets (one mine, one Lance's) and they had mould on them. We couldn't save Lance's so out it went. Mine wasn't as bad so I hung it outside and brushed the mould off. Then I let it hang in the sun and wind to kill the spores. Before sealing it up in a plastic storage bag, I'll go over the jacket with white vinegar. This closet has air vents to the outside but we still have to check our clothes frequently - live and learn.

Also discovered mould on some stored briefcases and purses. Cleaned them up and they are now in sealed storage bags - the kind you suck the air out of. We also need to get some products called Damp Rid and Dry Out for the closets and storage areas.

This is all part of living in the tropics - once you learn what to do, there is no problem. I would say it beats shovelling snow any day. Besides, the weather has been fabulous the last few days so I've done all my laundry and every bit of it is dry!

Singin' In The Rain

Not singing exactly - more like "wow! amazing!" We are finally getting our first taste of the true green season in Costa Rica. Up to now, we've been wondering where all the rain was that everyone talks about.

From June to last week, it was nothing but sunshine, high temperatures and afternoon thunderstorms with  periods of rain.

Now, it has been raining almost non-stop for about four days. If it's not a fine mist, it's torrential downpours. Maximum temperatures in the last 24 hours have been 75.7F and minimum 67.5F.  We needed the quilt on our bed last night - I've been wondering why a quilt was stored in our closet (rental house, fully furnished).

Power outages are occurring more often too - we cancelled a restaurant pizza meal the other night because the power went out and we could not call for a taxi on the house phone. Why don't we have cell phones? It's something we have to look into - but I think you cannot get one unless you have residency.

We've been curious as to why this big cement hole was right outside the back door:

With all this rain, we now know it is a drain to syphon off rain water that comes down from the back of the property, which is at a higher elevation than the house. The street gutters are huge - deep and very wide and it sounds like we have a river running beside our house. Torrents of rain are flowing down the street.

The higher elevation of the back of the property, where the banana trees are, has also been designed to control water flow with berms, thereby directing water flow out into the street gutters. It's really impressive how everything has been carefully thought out.

Soggy Acres

Daily Life in Atenas

We're back to normal green season weather....rain or the threat of it some time during the day, or at night. Last night we listened to a symphony of hard tropical downpour and thunder, accompanied by a light show in the sky. Poor Genny heads for her storm cupboard at the first clap of thunder.

Since we are ex-West Coasters, we don't mind the rain, fog or cooler temperatures when they occur. I would have to say that since we arrived May 31st, we have enjoyed a lot of sun and higher temperatures. It will be interesting to see what October brings, as that is supposed to be the rainest month. We also have the dry season to look forward to come November.

It is said that if you don't like the weather where you live in Costa Rica, move up or down 100 feet and experience something different.

I'm now able to call the taxi - we use Jorge Calderon - I think he gets a good laugh out of my broken, awful Spanish and he always helps us with pronouncing words.

We have so many limes on our tree. They are semi-sweet and turn yellow as they mature and that is when they are super juicy. Fran Browne from www.boomersoffshore.com sent me a no-fail recipe for making key lime pie. I bought all the ingredients today, except for the graham crumb crust. I'll have another look for graham crackers next week. That tree ain't goin' nowhere.

We had breakfast today at Kay's Gringo Postres - we always meet new people there. I borrowed two books from their library and enjoyed one of the best breakfast BLT's I've ever had. What a great place to share information - we found out where the best butcher shop is, where to find 40 watt bulbs for our bathroom light over the mirror, who does what and where.

 No street addresses though - everything is "200 metres up the road from ... just around the corner and head north from ... you know where that shop is, well turn left and go one block ... if you know where the candy shop is across from the park, well the pharmacy you want is right next to that ....". As someone who got lost driving from Harrod's in Reno, Nevada,  to a mall 10 minutes away and ended up in California, you can see how this is difficult for me. We keep a small compass out on the patio table so I at least know what direction north is.

We needed to buy Genny her special Hills prescription diet k/d feline renal health kibble (what a mouthful) and I thought we'd have to go out of town to find it. But, no, we found it at Medico Veterinario - directions: 50 metres west of the Supermercado Pali in Atenas. They have two resident cats and I think this will be a very good place to take Genny if she needs attention. Cats here seem to look a lot different than North American kitties - they are smaller and in really good shape.

Having big trouble with wasps and our hummingbird feeder - the wasps swarm around the feeder so much that the hummers can't feed. I need to find a different feeder - the kind that the wasps can't feed off.

Today was the feria in Atenas - I bought strawberries, green onions (huge), a big bunch of cilantro with the roots still attached which I will now try to plant, and red peppers. A special surprise was a craft fair and we took pictures of the young dancers: