Troyano. Didn’t read all of your post, but can see it is well written and informative (perhaps helped by my lack of knowledge of Costa Rica!)
One of the main risks for investors in this region will be hurricanes. I appreciate any such problems will apply to the East coast, but please tell us what you can about hurricanes affecting Cost Rica and provide links that will help alleviate people’s fears.[/QUOTE]
Hello The Soup Dragon,
is very good you ask this question, this is some details about our weather.
TEMPERATURE
Due to the fact that Costa Rica is located between 8 and 12 degrees north of the Equator, we do not suffer the drastic changes of temperatures between one seasonal period and another, that characterize the temperate and cold zones. The major part of the Costa Rican territory enjoys thermal stability throughout the year. In some zones of Guanacaste, the increase in temperature is associated with the dry season and the large amount of daylight hours with clear skies.
Altitudinal Variation
The parameter that does produce temperature changes is the altitude, and because Costa Rica is a country with great altitudinal variations ( from sea level to more than 3800 meters ),this effect is considered of great importance. In the highlands the temperatures are low during the whole year. At high elevations the temperature can drop many degrees during the coldest hours of the night, ( in the highest points the temperature can go below 0 C ) but increase with the sunlight during the daylight.
At the other extreme to this situation are the lowlands, where temperatures do not descend less than 20 C and not higher than 30 C. In the major part of the Central Valley, the maximum temperature ( around 28 C ) is reached a little after midday and descends gradually to about 20 C around 7:00 p.m. It stays stable during the night and reaches the minimum ( around 18 C ) around 4:00 a.m., it overcomes the 20 C point at 7:00 a.m. and increases gradually to midday.
This pattern of daily oscillation is constant during the whole year, although, naturally, during the rainy season the temperatures tend to be lower and descend faster during the afternoon. The hibernation fronts in december and january make the temperature descend considerably.
It has been talked of in recent years about global warming of our planet. The intense industrial outpourings and the growing world population are in part responsible for some of these changes. The fact is that a general change in the planets´s temperature would implicate a change in distribution patterns of rainfall, in the sea level and other climatic factors all over the world.
WINDS
Because Costa Rica is located in the northern hemisphere, the dominant winds of its climate are the north easterly trade winds.
The Northern Winds
The northern winds are cold and dry winds that blow in our national territory in December and January. Because of the cold weather in the North American continent during this time of the year, the zone of high pressure intensifies to a latitude approx. 30 degrees North and these winds descend to the south reaching our territory. These cold and dry winds penetrate until the Central Valley in Costa Rica, producing the typical climate of the end of the year.
RAINFALL
In Costa Rica there are no real dry zones, because the minimum rainfall is of 1200 mm per year ( 48 inches ). On the other hand, there are zones with 8000 mm ( 320 inches ) of rainfall per year.
In general terms, in Costa Rica we can talk about 2 rainfall regimes:
The Pacific ( often called tropical ),characterised by a very well defined dry season, and the Caribbean ( many times called equatorial ) , with the permanent influence of the north easterly trade winds and without a dry season.
In the Caribbean regime, there are 2 very different systems. On one side, the coast lowlands and northern plains, that present a notable decrease of rainfall during March and April and sometimes September, and on the other side, the mountains and slopes exposed to the trade winds, where it rains all year long without appreciable interruption.
The fundamental characteristic of the climate of the Pacific is the presence of a dry season that lasts for 4 months and more in some zones. Also there is an important characteristic, a short dry period during half of the year, known as veranillos ( little summers )
Rainy Season
During this period, the Pacific region is inside the convergence zone, where the winds from the west strengths those already existing and produce the rainy season with all its intensity. This period extends from mid May to the end of November, and it is only interrupted by the veranillos. ( little summers ). The veranillos last for a period of one to two weeks , almost always in July, where precipitation decreases considerably in all the Pacific Zone. When it occurs early ( end of June ),its known popularly as " Veranillo de San Juan ", if it occurs in July or beginning of August, sometimes with alternatives of dry and rainy days, the countryside men know it as caniculas. This phenomena, is due, basically to the changes of the zenithal position of the sun.
Rainfall in the Osa Peninsula
The region of the South Pacific receives considerably more rainfall than Guanacaste and the north of Puntarenas, and so much more than many localities of the Caribbean. Nevertheless, different than the Caribbean, this region has a period with a defined decrease of rainfall.
Storms in the Pacific
During the summer in the north ( from July to end of November ),frequently, zones of low pressure are formed in the Caribbean region, where winds are produced that rotate in opposition to clockwise to the centre of the depression. This produces strong winds and rain in the Pacific Region that sometimes may turn into hurricanes. Costa Rica is far away from the preferential route of hurricanes, this is why we mainly get their indirect effects - to the Pacific Littoral. ( With the exceptions of Joan in 1983 and Mitch in 1998, that dangerously approached our Caribbean coast, causing devastating flooding results.)
If investors are not scare to invest in Miami, then they should not scare to invest in Costa Rica.
wow
