Yesterday it got cloudy and rained in the evening. This morning I woke up to a steady, gentle rain. I first heard it before sunup but I don’t know if it rained all night. What a change! For many weeks now it has been hot and dry, highs well into the 90’s. I was told that summer doesn’t usually end until April but it sure feels different today. It’s much cooler, in the lower 80’s, and there are more clouds.
Before we moved here we tried to visit at different times of the year to get a sense of what different seasons were like, but it wasn’t the same as living here. We visited in February but I don’t remember finding it that much different from our previous June visit. Or, maybe we were in tourist mode and didn’t notice.
However, living here in the summer (December – March) has been very different from living here in the rainy season. In the summer it almost never rains. Our yard has turned brown and crunchy, and any plants you want to keep need to be watered. Trees have burst into flower all over, followed by fruits. I’ve heard different bird songs and different insects, and seen iguanas that I hadn’t seen before. Even the river looks different. The sun is intense and the afternoons are quite hot, though there is often a strong wind, but nights are usually cool. The water system struggles to keep up and we’re learned to manage the frequent water outages.
In the rainy season you do what you need to do in the morning because by mid afternoon, the rains are likely to be heading your way. It’s rather nice because it cools everything off in the warmest part of the day. Everything tends to be lush and green with almost daily rain, and there is a lot of humidity. I think I prefer the rainy season, but I haven’t been here for all of it. My friends here tell me it rains a LOT in April and May.
I’m not sure what is going on now. Is it a brief break in the summer dry weather, or is it the rainy season returning? I guess time will tell, but I’ll enjoy it while it’s here.
The Panama Adventure 
Uh, 75 for the high????? In David???? Hmmmmm…..
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That weather forecast shows temperature ranges for morning, afternoon, and night. That’s probably the high range predicted for the night temperature.
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What? No snow?
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Ha! NO, no snow, thank goodness.
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We will gladly send you our rain as we have been getting more than enough lately! Hopefully your post shows that it is moving north so that we can dry out. Any unusual frog and toad noises yet?
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Oh I know, you all have been slogging through the mud for long enough and we’d be glad to take your rain for a while. There strangest thing now is the whistling bugs at sunset. I haven’t heard anything unusual from the frogs and toads, though there are a lot of tadpoles and baby frogs at the river.
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I have read often that many prefer rainy season. They don’t like the “brown” of it all and want to see everything in bloom. Hope you can squeeze more dry days out of the weather though, so rainy season isn’t eight months!
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I don’t mind the rainy season. It’s a lot like summer in Florida. It doesn’t rain all the time, just every day in the afternoon. When you know what to expect you can easily work around it. I’ll be happy to see everything get green again though the change of season has been very interesting.
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Kris, your vivid description of the dry season in Panama sounds exactly like southern Nicaragua. The water shortages, the brown crackly ground, and the dust is out of control. I have to mop our floors daily. Like Panama, our dry season has been unusual this year. We’ve had some rain and this morning it’s a chilly 78 degrees. Last rainy season was exceptionally dry. I attribute it to climatic changes and global warming. I feel for the farmers because they have been having a lot of problems with the crops due to the climatic changes. They usually can predict the weather as accurately as any meteorologist, but 2012 and 2013 has thrown them for a loop. They just scratch their heads in confusion. I prefer the rainy season. Everything is so lush and grows about a ft. a day. lol The dry season produces the most mangoes. We have 5 mature mango trees surrounding our house. The constant bombing of mangoes on our tin roof scares me every time. Plus, I got a frozen shoulder last year from constant raking and shoveling of mangoes. Sigh! But, I still love our tropical home.
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I think mangoes are such wonderful things but I didn’t think about them bombing the roof and piling up in the yard! I think here things aren’t always so predictable, but it seems you get different stories depending on whom you talk to. Today it feels like we are back to summer though. Oh well, I will look forward to rainier and greener days.
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Having lived here in Chiriqui for three years (well it will be three years in May) I can tell you I much prefer the “rainy” season. It seems to have been exceptionally hot this year and I find myself turning on the a/c for a couple of hours in the middle of the afternoon for some relief.
People up in the States seem to think that the “rainy” season means it rains 31 (that’s 24/7), but like you said, you get up early, get what you need to get done out of the way before one o’clock or so and then settle in with a good book for the couple of hours of heavy rain that’s sure to come.
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That’s good to know because afternoons have been hot enough, even up here next to the woods. And, today, it seems like summer has returned. Oh well. I didn’t get here until October and that part of rainy season was nice. Does it rain more in April and May, from what you have seen?
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I can’t say it rains more in April and May than other months in the rainy season.
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OK, then I won’t worry about it. Thanks
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Since you haven’t been through an entire rainy season yet I thought I’d give you an idea of what it can be like from my blog, if you don’t mind…
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Interesting, thank you! I see evidence at the river by our house too that there as been significant water in the past. It will be interesting to see what this season brings. I’m thankful that our neighborhood is way above the level of the river!
That was pretty crazy, the washed out bridge on the highway.
One thing here, the rain is warm so it isn’t bad to be out in it, though I’d hesitate to send the kids out with their band instruments (because of the instruments)
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