The Weather -- 2010 in Review

The picture for today's entry is of a morpho butterfly. My friend Louis Bregger took it on Christmas eve, up at the  La Paz Waterfall Gardens, one of my favorite places in Costa Rica.

If I'd known in advance that I was going to be recording as much weather information as I have, I probably would have purchased a weather station. But I started recording rainfall, and then the temperature, and one thing led to another. Rainfall measurement began in June, temperatures in August, and wind velocity in December. So, the information for 2010 is incomplete, but interesting nonetheless.

RAIN: Precipitation (all rain in our case) was the easiest. I put a plastic rain gauge that measures up to four inches out in the vegetable garden. I check it and empty it every morning.

TEMPERATURE: I began measuring temperatures at the same time, but had to throw out the information gathered when I checked it in July against information obtained from iWeather Complete on my new Ipod. IWeather Complete provides detailed data from Heredia, which is only five miles away. The weather in Heredia, however, is much different than here -- warmer, dryer, and less windy. When the low temperatures for Heredia were lower than my data for Concepcion, I knew my thermometer was inaccurate. I began recording temperatures with my Timex helix watch and comparing them with Heredia in iWeather Complete, and they seemed to mesh.

WIND: In December I received an anemometer to record wind speeds. It is hand held, so I check several times a day, which means I could very easily miss the high wind volocity for the day. Lacking a real weather station, this is the best I can do.

BAROMETRIC PRESSURE: I haven't begun recording this yet. My Timex helix watch is capable of giving me this information. To be honest, I've never really paid much attention to this. We'll see if I have the time to fool around with it.

For comparison purposes, I've included below data provided by the Instituto Meteorologico de Costa Rica for their weather station in Santa Lucia de Barva de Heredia. This weather station is slightly more than two miles distant from our location and 1,000 feet lower elevation. The Barva data are averages; the Concepcion data are actual rainfall and temperature recordings for 2010.

RAINFALL FOR 2010
Total rainfall (mid-June - December):  99.4 inches
By month (inches)
                   Barva    Concepcion
  June          12.6       5.0 (2nd half of month only)
  July             8.5      11.3
  August      10.5       27.2
  Sept          16.5      26.7
  Oct           16.8      10.1
  Nov            7.4        9.8
  Dec            2.0        9.3

TEMPERATURE (fahrenheit) FOR 2010
  AVERAGE HIGH
                   Barva    Concepcion
  August       77         76
  Sept          77         75
  Oct           76         75
  Nov           76          73
  Dec           75         72

  AVERAGE LOW
                  Barva    Concepcion
  August      60         57
  Sept          59         62
  Oct           59         61
  Nov           60         60
  Dec           59        57

  Low temperature for the year -- 51 degrees - Dec. 17

  High temperture for the year -- 80 (various dates)

Happy gardening!