EscucharSAN JOSE - The weather changes brought about by El Niño are besieging the residents of the Costa Rican capital with unusual heat, an average 3ºC (roughly 6ºF) above the regular temperature.
Werner Stolz, an expert from the National Meteorological Institute (IMN in Spanish), said that the regular temperature in early February in San José is an average 24ºC (75.2ºF), but at noon yesterday the thermometer read 27ºC (80.6ºF).
The same was true for other cities in the Central Valley region of this Central American country, such as Cartago, 21 kilometers (13 miles) east of San José, which was 27ºC instead of the usual 24ºC. Alajuela, 17 kilometers (a little over 10 miles) north of the capital city recorded 31ºC (87.8ºF) against the usual 28ºC (82.4ºF).
The Costa Rican Water Institution (ICAA in Spanish) announced several weeks ago that water would be rationed in several areas throughout the country. Also, it is making repeated calls por people to conserve water.
Conversely, officials from the Costa Rican Electricity Institution (ICE in Spanish) explained that precisely because of the heavy rains El Niño dropped upon Costa Rica last year the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants are full and that rationing of power is therefore not foreseeable.
``El Niño is at its climax,'' explained oceanographer Carlos Brenes, from Universidad Nacional, who added that the ocean current from Indonesia that heats the waters of the Pacific Ocean has reached ``maturity'', therefore the consequences of the phenomenon are more evident now in the Central American nations.
Brenes added that the temperature of the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean are now 2.5ºC (roughly 5ºF) above the normal temperature for this time of year, because they have gone from 28ºC to 30.5ºC (82ºF to 87ºF) as an average.
Also, the persistence of strong trade wind from the north prevent the humidity generated by the Pacific Ocean to enter the territories of the different countries, therefore making the heat worse.
Brenes pointed out that because of El Niño the different drought-prone areas in Central America will face more difficulties this dry season than at other times. He said these areas include the North Pacific region of Costa Rica, most of El Salvador, the northern tip of Guatemala and the South Pacific region of Nicaragua.
Moreover, the expert said, because of the phenomenon the beginning of the rainy season, which usually takes place in May, might be delayed this year, thus making the supply of basic grains even worse than it is now.
Sources at the Ministry of Agriculture of Costa Rica remarked that state authorities are giving particular attention to the province of Guanacaste, in the North Pacific, where the crops of rice and beans are seriously affected. However, they failed to provide data on the extension of the damage.
