I spent 5 hours yesterday with Ricardo Espinosa while he summed up and I transcribed 16 years worth of rain data. Now I have to get it into the computer, format it, and hopefully post it as a separate page on this blog.
I have the monthly summaries, which is what I’ll post, but the day-to-day records are valuable as well–not only because they are the raw data but also because of what they show. For example, the total rainfall of one month–March, 2004–all 4.5″ of it, came on one day.
We intend to bring a laptop and scanner to the Espinosa house on Monday to scan those precious, precious pages.
I alternate between salivating and near tears when I see the pages of meticulous records he’s kept, not just on precipitation, but on temperatures as well. I can’t stand the thought that they might somehow be lost. Transcribing the temperature data is going to be a bear. We’ll try to scan them, but I’m not sure we’ll be successful.
No, Ricardo doesn’t have the most sophisticated instrumentation. But he’s got a good thermometer and again, he’s meticulous about collecting his data, manually. There might have been some variation between his data and that collected by an automated weather station, but believe me good methodology and simple instruments over such a period of time count. His records are invaluable. If I have to transcribe them by hand, I will, even though it will take a very long time. His has been a true labor of love.
He’s interested in the different graphs that can be produced by computer. He has some, drawn by hand, where he compares temperature with precipitation data. We can do it far more easily on the computer.
Just in transcribing the data yesterday, both of us were fascinated with what we found out. For example, 3″-4″ in 24 hours is considered a lot of rain. In the 16 years of daily records, there were three days when the rainfall accumulation reached 6″! And a good dozen, probably more, days when the rainfall accumulation was 5″ to 5.5″ Ricardo said that on those 6″ days, the rain probably was torrential for 5-6 hours. I noted in our first rainy season here, in 2004, there were several days when we had that kind of rain for several hours; it was as if a sheet of water had been dropped from the eaves of the roof, blanking out anything beyond the porch. However, I haven’t noticed anything quite like that in the last 3 years.
And the patterns, the patterns. I’m dying to look up the El Niño years. It’s very clear where the years have been drier than what has to be the average. Also, months that broke his records, anyway, for rainfall.
Another interesting piece of data: he’s pretty certain that our elevation is 800 meters, theirs is 900 meters (about 2 kilometers away from us) and that of the Infoplaza, which is not that far away from their house, about 1000 meters. Just before you get to the pueblo, the ground starts rising rapidly.
All will be revealed, soon. Like, now.
Filed under: Potrerillos Arriba, weather
Weather in the tropics is filled with wild swings and micro climate oddities. I do love a pounding thunderstorm. It’s so cleansing.
Isn’t that the truth about the swings and microclimate oddities! Especially the latter.
I’d enjoy the aguaceros more if I weren’t dealing with roof leaks right now.
Joyce
Joyce, I’m very much enjoying your blog but don’t think I’ve commented yet. I live in the Yucatan and we too get those downpours that are like someone above with a bucket.
I wanted to say that if you can’t get the journal in the scanner, it does work to take digital pictures and blow them up. I’ve done that with things I needed to save but didn’t have a scanner.
Hi, Jonna,
That’s a great way of describing these incredible downpours! the other day we had a real dilly–for about 30 seconds or so, it sounded as if an army were pounding on the roof with giant hammers. Fortunately, it didn’t last long.
Come to think of it, given the location of the Yucatan, I can sure see how you would get such rains. Were you affected by the hurricane that recently passed through the peninsula?
Thanks for confirming that that will work. I had thought about bringing my digital camera with me. Some of the pages that have temperature data–crowded with tiny figures–are faded or have been blotted by rain. Other pages have the numbers in red ink, and Im not sure how that’s going to scan. So yes, I certainly need Plan B.
Joyce