TICO BULL – To all my friends and family up north, I am fine. In Costa Rica we don’t get hurricanes.
The concern was over the news of Ericka sweeping through the Caribbean, hovering over Puerto Rico, dumping rain on Hispaniola, drenching Haiti and the Dominican Republic Friday, leaving a trail of destruction dumping, killing 20 people.
Due to its location, hurricanes rarely hit Costa Rica because the country is to close to the equator which is below the path of most hurricanes. Costa Rica is located at 9.55 degrees north of the equator, below the path of most hurricanes. There are seven tropical cyclone zones “basins” where storms occur on a regular basis and Costa Rica is not located in the affected areas.
It could be said that Costa Rica is a Hurricane-free Zone. During the hurricane season, June 1st – Nov. 30th, Costa Rica will occasionally feel the effects.From May to November Costa Rica is in its “rainy season” of its two season year, a time when we get a lot of rain. But heavy rain isn’t the same as heavy rain AND 100+ mph winds, which we don’t get.
This year, the rainy season has been a dry one. In the month of August we had little rain in the Central Valley, even less in Guanacaste. In the past two weeks alone the rain in the west side of San Jose, where I live, was a brief shower one Friday afternoon, a few days of threatening clouds.
This is typically a period of heavy rain, especially as we near September and October, when a majority of the year’s rainfall is dumped on us.
Taking stock of my umbrella situation, two weeks ago I bought two new ones (¢2,500 colones each at Walmart for imported Italian models). I’ve already lost one, towing it just in case and leaving it behind somewhere since there has been no rain.
Thanks to all who wrote or called.
Article originally appeared at Ticobull.com
