Central America [in State of the Climate in 2020]

Abstract

For this region, nine stations from five countries were analyzed (see Fig. 7.8 for data and station list). The station distribution covers the relevant intraseasonal regimes of precipitation (Amador 1998; Magaña et al. 1999; Amador et al. 2016a,b), wind (Amador 2008), and temperature (Hidalgo et al. 2019) on the Caribbean and Pacific slopes of Central America (CA). Precipitation and temperature records for the stations analyzed and regional wind were provided either by CA National Weather Services (CA-NWS), NOAA, or the University of Costa Rica. Anomalies are reported using a 1981–2010 base period and were calculated using CA-NWS data. The methodologies used for all variables can be found in Amador et al. (2011).