Latin America Update #35: Rainfall Looking good in Central America, Caribbean

Rainfall is improving, and coming close to normal everywhere in Central America, except far northern Guatemala, and the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. The Caribbean islands have also been having a good season. Most of Mexico has been struggling with rainfall, severely in the northeast and in the Yucatan. In South America, poor rainfall continues in central Chile and a dry week in inland parts of Venezuela.

Rainfall has been improving a little bit each week across Central America and the Caribbean. The areas of significant deficits are in northern Guatemala, central and western Cuba, most of Mexico, as well as the east coast of Costa Rica.  The Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba area is part of a larger area of suppression that extends northward into the southern United States. Rainfall has been been sparse over a huge area of North America. There does seem to be a bright spot though. Heavy rainfall is expected over a wide area of Mexico, with more moderate rainfall in Cuba and Guatemala. Of note is that in Guatemala, the dryness is confined largely to a sparsely populated area, but one that is mainly populated with substance farmers. The Costa Rican dryness is more localized in nature.

In South America rainfall has been sufficient in from Argentina to Colombia and towards the northeastern part of the continent. The only consonantly dry area is central Chile. This past week has also been dry across inland areas of Venezuela. The good news is that both areas are expected to pick up rainfall next week. Precipitation may be a bit off during the next seven days in Uruguay and Argentina, however a front will tap into moisture in Peru and drag rainfall across a narrow band of Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil.