Rain Breaks 40-Year Record

BUCKETS of rain threatened to wash the summer out of San José on Monday afternoon.

The first torrential shower of the year came much earlier than anticipated and broke a nearly 40-year record for a February day, according to meteorologists.

The National Meteorological Institute reported that 47.4 centimeters of rain soaked San José that day, breaking the previous record of 35.4 cm on Feb. 21, 1968.

Werner Stolz, meteorologist and forecast specialist with the institute, said the rain was a freak occurrence that is not likely to be repeated soon.

There was a pressure drop in the seasonally high-pressure system over the Gulf of Mexico that shoved rain clouds into Costa Rica, he explained.

He said the end of February and first week of March are usually a transitional period into the hotter and less breezy weeks of the summer season