San José is seeing the most rain in 64 years and could break a century-old record, the National Meteorological Institute (IMN) reported.
By September, some 2,100 millimeters of rain had fallen in San José, already beating the annual average of 1,860 mm, according to IMN.
The rain analysis came last week as displaced residents across Costa Rica began returning home from shelters set up during a weeklong rainstorm that caused flooding, landslides and damage to roads and other infrastructure, killing six people, according to a United Nations humanitarian affairs report Wednesday.
Throughout Central America, torrential downpours and flooding, which continued this week in Honduras, have left at least 40 people dead and forced thousands into shelters.
Early this week, when the continuous storms here had begun to subside, the Costa Rican government declared a national state of emergency that freed up funds to begin the rebuilding effort. The Public Works and Transport Ministry set preliminary damage estimates at more than $5 million.
The emergency covers cantons in the provinces of San José, Puntarenas, Cartago, Alajuela, Limón and Guanacaste.
Unlike the recent tropical storms, the weather seems to have returned to normal October conditions, according to meteorologists.
This weekend looks likely to follow the peak rainy season trend: partly cloudy or sunny days, with afternoon and evening downpours on the Pacific coast, in the Central Valley and interior mountains, while the Caribbean coast could see scattered showers, according to meteorologist Juan Diego Naranjo.
–Alex Leff
