Costa Rica Weather–August 2016 Observations, Facts, & Tidbits

You’ll notice that we now show rainfall and temperatures for eleven towns in Costa Rica:

• San Ramón de Alajuela
• Atenas
• Nuevo Arenal
• Quepos
• Near San Isidro de General
• San Rafael de Heredia
• Tinamastes, Perez Zeledon
• El Cajón de Grecia
• Grand View Estates, Siquirres
• Volio de Cachí, Orosi Valley
• Escazú

This isn’t weather forecasting. We report after the fact to give you a much better picture of the weather in each of these areas. You can click on the map above to enlarge it and check out the average rainfall for the towns in which you are interested.

Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August

If read every month, the following “observations, facts, & tidbits” can give you great insight into the areas of the country in which you might be interested. They are personal insights from folks with their feet on the ground in these towns.

Paul’s San Ramón Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• The annual Festejos San Ramón (Celebrations San Ramon) took place from August 18th to September 5th. This celebration, which lasts a total of 19 days, is the most festive time of the year in San Ramón.
•  August 30th is the biggest day of the year in San Ramón. Tourists come from all over the country to watch the Entrada de Los Santos (parade of the saints) as they enter the Cathedral.

• San Ramón is the self-proclaimed La Capital del Mundo (capital of the world). Moncho is the nickname for San Ramón, and those of us who call San Ramon home are affectionately called Moncheños.
• Rainfall for August was about average until August 30th when we had 10.38″ in one day!
• Can you imagine having over 10 inches of rain in one day? Even in Costa Rica, the infrastructure and ground have problems with that much rain. It undermines many things; there were lots of landslides and road closures. The rain fell in the late afternoon and early evening. But the morning was beautiful with sunny skies.
• The coldest day of the month low 61°F / high 71°F was the last day of the month, August 31st.
• Total rainfall for the last 3 years in our area of San Ramón:
  • 2015 – 103 inches
  • 2014 – 120 inches
  • 2013 – 111 inches

Lance T’s Atenas Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• I am obliged to take a 3 month sabbatical from Atenas weather reports (July, August and September). Soon after our digital digital thermometer / humidity monitor (kept outdoors) was pilfered and replaced as previously reported, our house, along with others in our neighborhood was burgled. They took computers, iPads, cell phones, flat screens, etc. My latest information is that four are now in custody. Where the stolen property has gone remains a mystery.
• A replacement computer should arrive by mid-September. My plan is to then reinstall my weather data high-end software. Everything else being equal, my next weather report from Atenas will likely be for the month of October.
• Total rainfall for the last 3 years in our area of Atenas:
  • 2015 – 63.70 inches
  • 2014 – 73.59 inches
  • 2013 – 63.84 inches

John’s Nuevo Arenal Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• Nothing much to talk about weather-wise this month, although we are way behind normal for the year.
• However, we did have a visit from an anteater who spent most of one day in a tree in back of our house and had its picture taken by many people who came by to see it.

• We’ve been in Costa Rica for over 25 years and own the B&B, Chalet Nicholas, located in Nuevo Arenal.
• Total rainfall for the last 3 years in our area of Nuevo Arenal:
  • 2015 – 208.34 inches, setting a new record!
  • 2014 – 184.95 inches
  • 2013 – 164.75 inches

Lance M’s Central Pacific Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• August was a very quiet month, with one very exciting happening toward the end. We were invited to speak at the International Living Conference in San Jose on Sept 22nd through 24th about living on the Central Pacific Coast.
• Beyond that, the rest of August was just getting back to normal after the robbery in July. We now have a commercial roll down door on the back of the house, updated bars on the windows, and are getting the rear screen door reinforced.
• Total rainfall for the last 2 years in our area:
  • 2015 – 130.3″ / 330.96 cm
  • 2014 – 73.5″ (as of February 2014 when I started measuring it for this newsletter).

Gordon’s Villa Nueva (San Isidro de El General) Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• August was another great month weather-wise in San Isidro de El General. The average 6:00am temperature was 71°F / 21.7°C, with an average high of 79.8°F / 26.6°C. The hottest day saw 87°F, 27°C.
• We had a total of 7.5″/ 19.05 cm, with the heaviest daily rainfall of 1.4″ and 6 days of no rainfall at all.

• We had a fantastic river boat cruise last month in Europe. We began in Budapest, and 14 days later, ended in Amsterdam. We went through close to 70 locks as we travelled the picturesque Danube and Danube and the Rhine rivers. I had never been to Europe before, so everything was new (guess that should read “old”) and awesome. Castles, cathedrals, cities – just so much history to take in. It was definitely the trip of a life time and we would highly recommend it to everyone.

• In September we will be going back to Canada for 3 weeks, so there will be no weather report from me next month. See you in October!

Steve’s San Rafael de Heredia Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• We had a typical August – cloudy, rainy, humid, and calm. At thirteen point four inches of rain, it was slightly above normal. Cumulative rainfall for the year now stands at 80.6 inches. After seven years of recording, this is the highest total for an August so far. We may be headed for a record.
• We are really appreciating the windless days. July typically has some wind, but August is a welcome relief. We will start to get some winds again in November, but then December through February, and parts of March, will seem more like a hurricane. Another interesting tidbit, wherever I lived in the States (Washington, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, and South Caroline) the prevailing winds were from the west. Here they are from the east – takes some getting used to.
• The visiting family members returned to the States at the end of July. These annual visits are always very intense. So, our activities for August matched the weather perfectly – calm. We lead an uneventful lifestyle, and we like it that way. Not much travel and not much socializing. I go out to the chicken coop in morning to feed and water the chickens, and to collect the eggs. There are usually two eggs. If the hens happen to have left three, well, that’s enough excitement to last me for the rest of the day.
• This month I worked in the vegetable garden quite a bit. It had turned into a jungle during the family visit. I go out in the morning and whack the jungle with my machete. Down boy, down!
• Last year I bought a riding mower. I love it, but the contour of the lawn has to be more even than for a push mower, or it doesn’t look good when you get done cutting the grass. So, for the last year I’ve been gradually evening out the contour. This month I filled in a major dip with soil and then covered it with sod (when I say a major dip, think the Grand Canyon). With the rain and the cloudy weather, this is the ideal time of year to do it. After one month the new sod has taken nicely and you would hardly even know that I had worked on it.

• Total rainfall for the last 3 years in our area of Heredia:
  • 2015 – 144.9 inches
  • 2014 – 115.1 inches
  • 2013 – 111.3 inches

Bonnie’s Tinamastes, Perez Zeledon Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• I’m starting to think that tracking the temperatures in Tinamastes is an exercise in futility as we see very little variation in the temperatures between day and night, day-to-day, and month-to-month.  No complaints here, as the temperatures typically stay in the quite comfortable 70’s day and night.
• The rainfall, however, does vary greatly. We moved to Tinamastes in mid-March, in time to experience about two months of the dry season. I started tracking the rainfall here on May 1, and we’ve received 66 inches of rain in the four months that I’ve been tracking it.  That’s the equivalent of four to five years’ worth of rain in our old town of Tucson, Arizona!  Fortunately, like our monsoon season in Tucson, the rain here usually doesn’t start until mid-afternoon or evening, and we get some days with no rain at all.
• Last August, we were still living in San Marcos de Tarrazu, and we received 3 inches of rain for the entire month, compared to 15.4 inches this August in Tinamastes.
• In late August, we traveled to Panama to combine a little vacation with some shopping.  It took about two hours to cross the border through the Paso Canoas crossing, largely due to the extra steps required to take our truck across.  We spent a night in David and two nights in Boquete, and it was a very enjoyable trip for us.  We decided to cross through the gentle Rio Sereno crossing on the way back.  The time we saved at the border was probably offset by the longer drive, but we got to see a beautiful part of Panama and have breakfast in Volcan and wonderful pizza in San Vito for lunch.

Irina’s El Cajón de Grecia Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• August rainfall greatly surpassed last year’s when we recorded only 219.7 mm. In fact, it even out-rained the previous 2 years, when we measured 330.1 mm in 2014 and 340.9 mm in 2013.
• With the humidity averaging above 50%, we were pleased that we had installed a central dehumidifier, covering our whole house and drying it out, which is most important for our artwork. It was a worth-while investment in preserving our collection and our furniture as well.
• Last month’s high of 27.2°C was more than one degree lower than last year’s (28.8°C), and compared with 27.1°C in 2014 and a cool 25.9°C in 2013.
• Last month’s low of 18.6°C was in line with last year’s low (18.4°C) and the low in 2014 (18.3°C).
• In 2013, however, it was “hotter” at night – 19.3°C – while it was “cooler” during the day (25.9°C).
• We learned the hard way that what we thought was a “whole house surge protector” failed mid-August, taking out our TV, our dishwasher (motherboard) AND our Internet. We have now installed a surge protector with uninterrupted power supply and a battery-back-up for the Internet. So far, so good.  (Now, if they only could find the part to repair our dishwasher ;-).
• It still puzzles me how “localized” rain and thunderstorms are – it could be pleasant in downtown Grecia and pouring on our ridge – or vice versa. A few meters up or down can change the weather pattern.
• 2015 rainfall for year: 107.6 inches (273.23 cm).

Mike’s Grand View Estates (Siquirres) Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• August continued the recent pattern of being much drier than the previous 2 years. With just 213 mm (8.4 inches) of rain falling over the month, the total was only 45% of the rainfall for August 2014, and 42% of last year’s rainfall in the month. The weather pattern for the previous 2 years was heavily influenced by El Niño. We may be reverting to more normal weather for the Caribbean region.
• We recorded no rain for 19 days out of 31, or 61% of days. This number is a little higher than May, June or July. We closed out the month with 9 straight days with next to no rainfall. September and October are usually quite dry in the Caribe, so we can look forward to even more sunny days. I’ve had to start watering the garden. Some of the plants were starting to look stressed from the heat and lack of water. The temperature has sneaked back up. We broke the 30c (86°F) mark on 25 out of the 31 days in August. May remains our warmest month, but the maximum high of 33.1°C reached one day last month was getting into the uncomfortable range.
• Grand View Estates sits well above the Caribbean plain and gets a nice sea breeze. The temperatures down in Siquirres are frequently 2 or 3 degrees warmer. And the temperature inside MaxiPali, the local Walmart, gets so hot as to be almost unbearable. I don’t know how the employees can tolerate it!
• Our little bed-and-breakfast, Amapolabnb.com, is doing quite well even though this is not the tourist season. We sure enjoy meeting people from all over the world. It seems that Americans prefer the dry Pacific coast, while Europeans prefer the lusher (and we think unspoiled) Caribbean.
• Total rainfall for the last 2 years in our area of Grand View Estates:
  • 2015 – 305.7 inches
  • 2014 – 208.2 inches (May through December)

Juan Miguel’s Volio de Cachí Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• The annual Romería (pilgrimage to Cartago) occurs every August 2, and we have 2 million people in Cartago.  That’s incredible considering that represents 40% of the entire population of Costa Rica.
• Our average overnight humidity remained at 98%  this month and the average daytime humidity remained unchanged from the past 3 months at 62%.  Daytime low humidity was 44% and daytime high was 81%.
• We had a 10 day festival in the valley that centered around bullfights.   It was not at all like the image you may have of a Spanish bullfight with a single matador in a cape.  No, this was all about having a ring full of Ticos (like maybe 100) all running around trying not to get tossed in the air by the bull. 
• Finca update:  We have a hen sitting on 13 eggs, so we should see some new chicks in early September. The goats are giving us about 2 gallons of milk every day, so I’ve been making tons of cheese.

Tim’s Escazú Observations, Facts, & Tidbits for August:

• Rain fall slightly less than average for the month. We’ve had years with more than double the rain for the month of August!  There is undoubtedly much more rain than last year, but still low.
• If you are in the market for insurance — automotive, homeowners, liability or medical — contact us at Garrett Brokers, a family owned business that has serviced the expat community for more than 35 years.
• Escazú County is one of 20 counties that make up the San Jose Metropolitan Area. It is west of the downtown San Jose area, with the Escazú mountains as its backdrop.

Our Weatherguys and Weathergals

Our San Ramón Weatherguy, Paul Yeatman

Meteorology has been Paul’s lifelong hobby.  As a child, he devoured books about the weather and earth sciences vigorously. Later, he took a few college courses in meteorology, and still later, he served as a meteorologist for the U.S. Army in Vietnam.  Now, Paul gets to practice his avocation in Costa Rica, albeit on a very small scale with just temperature and rainfall data, probably the two most important factors regarding the weather. He wanted to include weather info on our website to help people decide where to live, although weather is just one of many factors to consider in determining where to relocate. Current weather data is from our current home at about 3,000 ft. elevation and 10 minutes outside the town of San Ramón. Weather data prior to December 2012 is from our previous home at about 4,000 ft. elevation and 10 minutes outside the town of San Ramón.

Our Atenas Weatherguy, Lance Turlock

Lance and his wife, Diana, moved to Costa Rica over 4 years ago after living 30+ years in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia (Vancouver and environs). They live in the Central Valley near the town of Atenas and are at an elevation of about 2700 feet. They have no need for air conditioning or heating. Overnight low temperatures are comfortably cool (low 60’s). Daytime highs can be relatively hot (high 80’s, low 90’s), but rarely uncomfortably hot.Lance started to keep track of daily temperatures and rainfall in order to have factual ammunition to help disabuse friends, relatives and acquaintances of any misconception that the weather must be like that of a tropical jungle.

Our Nuevo Arenal Weatherguy, John Nicholas

After many visits to Costa Rica, John and Cathy Nicholas moved from New York to Costa Rica in 1991.  They chose Arenal for its sacred, majestic beauty, its lush wildlife, its relaxing lifestyle, and its proximity to activities and sites such as the Volcano Arenal and the beaches. They own the B&B, Chalet Nicholas, which has been in operation since 1992. Temperatures and rainfall are measured at Chalet Nicholas which is located at approximately 2,200 ft. elevation and 1 mile west of the town of Nuevo Arenal.

Our Central Pacific (Quepos) Weatherguy, Lance Miller

I was born in a very small town in northwest Iowa and raised on a farm. When I was 18, I joined the service, in which I spent 22 years before retiring in 1990. For the next twenty three years my family and I lived in south central Pennsylvania. After having a stroke in 2012, I was unable to work and that is when my wife and I began talking about retiring. Thanks to your newsletter and a website we found about San Isidro, we began looking at Costa Rica. We came down in March 2013 and looked around for a week. Went home, packed up, and moved here in April. We settled in a small village called Playa Matapalo which is located between Quepos and Dominical. We later moved to Quepos. The word Playa means beach. It is so nice to lie in bed and listen to the ocean. Pura Vida.

Our Villa Nueva (10 minutes NW of San Isidro de El General) Weatherguy, Gordon Stanley

Gordon and his wife Bea moved here from Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada, where he used to track the correlation of the winter hoer frost and the spring/summer rains. After 30+ years as a Purchasing Agent for a retail lumber yard/Homes Manufacturing company, he decided to say “Adios” to the snow and ice. They arrived in Costa Rica Oct 2, 2014, and originally lived in Quebradus, which is 15 minutes NE of San Isidro de El General, but as of November 2015 now live in Villa Nueva, which is 10 minutes NW of the city.  They are at a altitude of about 800 meters, living in a rental house that friends built on their acreage.  The fruit trees are abundant, and in the rainy season the water in the nearby streams can be heard from their deck.  They overlook a beautiful valley, and enjoy watching the sun setting behind the hills every night!

Our San Rafael de Heredia Weatherguy, Steve Johnson

I’m a weather geek and have been recording daily weather data for the last 4 years in Concepcion de San Rafael de Heredia. We live at 5,000 ft. (1,500 meters) elevation, above San Rafael centro on a low ridge that comes off of Cerro Chompipe (between Barva Volcano and los Cerros de Zurqui). We have a 60 mile wide view from Turrialba Volcano east to somewhere around Cerro Turrubares west. I first lived in CR as a Peace Corps volunteer (1968-71), married a tica school teacher, and moved back to Costa Rica in 2009. My wife grew up in downtown San Rafael just three miles away, and the weather is quite different there. I am also an avid gardener and birder.

Our San Marcos de Tarrazu Weathergirl, Bonnie Vining

Bonnie, her husband Joe, and their dog Marley moved from Tucson, Arizona to Costa Rica in mid-2015. Bonnie was a CPA, turned software engineer with IBM for 20 years and later opened and operated a specialty coffee shop, founded a non-profit dedicated to connecting musicians with appreciative audiences, and managed a school district theatre. A self-professed “data geek”, she enjoys being our weathergirl while pursuing her other passions which include traveling, gardening, cooking, hiking, meeting people, and hanging out with Joe and Marley. They are enjoying retirement life in the town of Tinamastes in Perez Zeledon which lies at about 2475 ft. elevation, after moving from San Marcos (4,800 ft. elevation) in the heart of Costa Rica’s prime coffee-growing region.

Our El Cajón de Grecia Weathergirl, Irina Just

Born in Germany, Irina spent 40+ years in the USA (all on the Pacific coast) before she and her husband Jim moved to Costa Rica three years ago. For the 20 years prior, they owned and operated a vineyard in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, famous for award-winning pinot noir. During that time, it became critical to keep precise records of daily temperatures, rainfall and pertinent weather patterns to accurately forecast seasonal tasks, such as when to prune the grapes, when to harvest, when to protect them from an early or late frost. As little as one degree made the difference between a bountiful harvest – or a lost crop. After moving to el Cajón de Grecia, the Justs continued to take daily readings of temperatures and measurements of rainfall because they quickly discovered that the micro-climate in the foothills of Poás differs widely from the weather in nearby Grecia.

Our Grand View Estates (Siquirres) Weatherguy, Mike Wise

Carmen and Mike Wise, together with their 2 large dogs, drove to Costa Rica from Calgary, Alberta a little over 3 years ago. Carmen is a professional musician. She was a guest clinician at Suzuki workshops in Costa Rica for many years, so developed good friendships here. Their network of friends helped them ease into the Pura Vida life! They built their own home in the gated community of Grand View Estates. It is located about 9km ESE of Siquirres, at an elevation of 200m. Their home has expansive views out to the Caribbean. Although the climate is tropical rain forest, it never gets too hot. They don’t need air conditioning. They run a small bed and breakfast (see www.amapolaBnB.com). Mike still works as a financial advisor, serving his Canadian clients. Telephone, email and Internet, supplemented by occasional trips back to Calgary, make living and working in a remote location possible. He does his own research and writes a quarterly newsletter Investing Wisely (see www.wiseword.ca).

Our Volio de Cachí (Orosi Valley) Weatherguy, John Michael Arthur

Our Escazú Centro (Barrio Los Profesores) Weatherguy, Tim Garrett

Tim Garrett was born in Costa Rica, and with an international background, with strong European and Latin American influence.  He loves spending time outdoors with whatever activity that comes his way. He works as General Manager of Garrett Brokers (www.garrettbrokers.com), a family owned insurance broker, that has serviced the expat community for more than 35 years. They handle Automobile, Homeowners, Liability, Medical insurance and more. Garrrett Brokers, where both English and Spanish are spoken, is even a stop on the Retire for Less Ultimate Healthcare Tour.

Related Articles:

• • Costa Rica Weather Report: 2016 Monthly Temps & Rainfall
  • Costa Rica Weather: 2015 Monthly Temps & Rainfall
  • Our Weather in San Ramón & Atenas Costa Rica – 2014
  • Our Weather in San Ramón & Atenas Costa Rica – 2013
  • Our Weather in San Ramón de Alajuela, Costa Rica – 2012
  • Our Weather in San Ramón de Alajuela, Costa Rica – 2011
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  • El Nino – What is it?