Earlier dry season and droughts

PANAMA. Everything appears to indicate that farmers are going to have a tough year but townsfolk will welcome an earlier dry season, as rains starts to diminish in the Pacific part of the country due to the El Niño phenomenon.

The meteorologist, Berta Alicia Olmedo, from the Electric Transmission Enterprise ETESA said that the rains in the region of the Panamanian Caribbean, Bocas del Toro, North of Veraguas and Costa Abajo, Colon are going to increase. While in contrast, the water precipitation in the Pacific, Chiriqui, center and south of Veraguas, the central provinces, Panama and Darien will face a drought.

Olmedo is substantiating her predictions on studies made by ETESA last year in which scientists measure the amount of rain the country has during the months of August and October last year.

The report said that the Indian summer, that started in the last week of July, will continue through the first days of August.

It also said that the Bocas del Toro province will have more rain than usual, but Los Santos, Tonosi, Divisa, Anton, Hato Pintado and Tocumen, the water precipitation will be below normal. However it is also probable that the Atlantic are will have an extended rainy season, which could cause havoc especially in Bocas del Toro and Colon.

It is expected thatthe El Niño phenomenon, which warms the Pacific water, will continue until February 2010.

The phenomenon is characterized by an increase in temperatures, warm winds and low rainfall.

It is possible that the dry season will commence earlier this year around the last days of November and the first week of December.