Costa Rica Dry Season to be Cut Short by La Niña
Written by Claire
Rainy Season is an Understatement in Costa Rica
Costa Rican meteorologists expect the rainy season, or the Costa Rican winter, to come early this year to the Central Valley and the Pacfic due to certain climate conditions including La Niña phenomenon. The rainy season usually begins in May, but heavy rains and cold weather is expected to start in mid-April or even sooner. It is not certain how long La Niña will continue to affect the region, but they expect it to dissipate around between June and August.
La Niña usually lasts for a period of 5 months and is caused by cooler than normal temperatures at the surface of the Pacific Ocean near the equator. La Niña causes wetter than normal weather conditions, where as El Niño, which Costa Rica experienced two winters ago is characterized by drier than average weather conditions.
The Costa Rican winter is already characterized by heavy afternoon down pours, which mixed with the cloud cover, leads to cool temperatures.
After a disastrous rainy season last year, with flooding and mudslides cutting off communities and leaving many people homeless, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) is still rushing to clean up the remaining consequences before it can prepare to prevent new disasters.
The CNE has created a budget, along with affected municipalities, to invest more than $72.7 million to build new roads, bridges, homes, damns and other preventative measures to make this year safer for residents. They are also investing more than $14 million to build 136 bridges, repair 350 kilometers of roads as well as to construct retaining walls and stabilize top soil that may be prone to mud slides throughout the country.
Some of the most affected regions include Corredores, Parrita, Filadelfia, Río Claro, Las Vegas, Caño Seco, Matina and Siquirres.
Photo Courtesy of Rockwatching.wordpress.com.
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Filed under: Costa Rica News on February 27th, 2008
They say this every year, I am sure it will be the same as last year dry until April then some rain in May. La Nina and El nino what a load of bull.
[…] the experts may have different opinions on why the rains will come earlier this year, some point to La Niña and others blame Global Warming, regardless of who’s right or wrong, we will all be carrying our […]