QCOSTARICA – Today, Monday, June 21, is the day of the year when the sun stays the longest on the horizon, therefore it is the day with the shortest night.
Today, the sunlight will stay with us for 12 hours and 42 minutes, due to the phenomenon called June solstice, which occurs during the summer of the northern hemisphere.
The phenomenon coincides with the passage over our territory of the seventh tropical wave of the season, which has caused heavy rains in the Caribbean, with incidents such as falling trees in Río Blanco, as well as in Matina and Sixaola de Limón, which caused damage to public power lines, reported the Fire Department.
The container terminals were also affected by strong winds that delayed loading and unloading tasks and there were rough seas.
Best to have the galoshes and umbrella handy at least until Wednesday, the national weather service, the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN), forecasting lots of rain before paving way for a dry spell known as the Veranillo de San Juan most likely to start by Thursday or Friday.
“Between Monday and Wednesday, rainy conditions are expected due to the influence of the intertropical convergence zone and the passage of tropical waves, since the eighth is expected for Wednesday,” says the IMN.
The heaviest rains are forecast for the Pacific, Central Valley and mountain regions of the country during the afternoons and early nights.
For the coastal areas of the Caribbean, rains are possible in the early mornings and mornings.
Summer Solstice
Regarding the “veranillo”, Luis Fernando Alvarado, coordinator of Climatology at the IMN, explained that it is a relatively short period, where it is a little windier and it hardly rains or it stops raining completely.
This year, the veranillo has been on and off since June 18; however, the strongest will be recorded between Thursday 24 (San Juan day) and June 26, preferably in the central and northern part of Guanacaste.
In the Central Valley it is more likely to occur in the westernmost sector (from Alajuela to Palmares), he added.
Between Thursday and Friday and even Saturday, the IMN projects a decrease in rainfall at the national level, due to the slight increase in the intensity of the trade wind and the entry of a mass of dust towards the Central American region.
For Sunday there could be a return of the heavy afternoon rains, due to the possible passage of tropical wave No. 9.
The veranillo de San Juan is also a time in Costa Rica for mid-year school vacations, that is if the schools were open, as they would have been without the pandemic.
It is a time that families head for the beaches and resorts. This year, with the schools closed, it may be a different scenario, but in any event, the Ministry of Health returns to stricter vehicular restrictions, until July 11, to avoid a recurrent spike in new cases of covid-19 as happened during Semana Santa.