Yesterday’s clouds turned out to be more than just a sign of moisture in the air, and condensed into a brief lluvia between 1-2am last night. One Guanacaste downpour in February is rare for the weather in Costa Rica, but two is exceptionally so, as the historical data shows.
February and March are the driest months of the year in Guanacaste, averaging close to zero days with per month with scarcely a cloud in the sky. So to see not one, but two days with rainfall in Town this month is definitely out of the ordinary.
These two rainfalls are the result of conditions in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans aligning perfectly. Usually the strength of the trade winds coming across Costa Rica is powerful enough to blow any clouds or residual storms drifting in from the Pacific Ocean straight out to sea. However, a lull in the trade winds this past week meant that such a buffer didn’t exist, opening up the coast to scattered rainstorms.
The second factor that keeps Guanacaste traditionally dry this time of year is the lack of major storms in the Equatorial Pacific. These mild conditions rarely produce rainstorms strong enough to reach land even without the trade winds, and this week has been much of the same, with a fragmented storm circulating down south.
In the absence of the trade winds this one lucky fragment of the storm offshore made it to Guanacaste, and turned into yesterday’s second rainshower.
A look at the radar shows exactly how much of a lucky shot this rainstorm was. Most of Guanacaste won’t have even noticed.
Around Town today, it’s misty and cooler, with a gentle onshore breeze about 5mph, a temperature right at 80F, and humidity around 77%. There’s also a smell of fresh earth, and the foliage throughout town is dotted with raindrops.
