As the saying goes, “Nothing lasts forever, not even your troubles,” and in the case of weather predictions, the National Meteorological Institute (IMN– Instituto Meteorológico Nacional) is predicting the end of the drought that has been scourging Guanacaste since 2014 as a result of ENSO, commonly known as El Niño.
This was announced by Luis Fernando Alvarado Gamboa, an official from the Climatology and Applied Research Department (DCIA- Departamento de Climatología e Investigaciones Aplicadas) of the National Meteorological Institute, during the 2016 Water Expo on April 8 at the old customs facilities in San Jose.
According to the latest meteorological estimates for June, the El Niño phenomenon will stop affecting the province and the rains will be returning to normal.
“We estimate that in the month of June, the phenomenon is going to disappear and from then on, the situation in Guanacaste is going to normalize gradually,” he indicated.
In addition, the specialist commented that the presence of La Niña is likely in September and October of 2016, with which there could even be a surplus of rains.
“If La Niña does develop, we could even have periods of days of continuous rains heavy enough that they could even cause flooding. We believe that this should already be visible in the month of September or October at the latest,” he affirmed.
The effects of the drought are being felt throughout the province of Guanacaste.
During 2015, on average about 500 cattle died, mainly in the canton of Santa Cruz, in part due to the weight loss of animals from lack of food and water supply.
In several districts of the 11 cantons of Guanacaste, the ASADA rural water boards and AyA offices have had to ration water service, coordinating shut-offs at different times of the day, due to the drastic drop in water levels experienced in the wells.
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