Strong rains expected in Costa Rica this week

It is the rainy season.

And according to meteorologists at the National Meteorological Institute (IMN), Costa Rica can expect torrential rain, wind gusts and lightning storms all week.

The IMN said weak trade winds will allow the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a belt of low-pressure systems that wraps around the Earth, to drift closer to Costa Rica’s coasts. This will cause higher levels of evaporation in the mornings, and give way to rain in the afternoons.

Most of the country will experience rain this week, but meteorologists say the strongest downpours will happen in the Central Valley and on the Pacific Coast, especially near the Gulf of Nicoya. Rains are not expected in the province of Limón, along the Caribbean coast. October is traditionally the Caribbean’s driest month.

Next week, the bad weather is expected to pass with only light rain in the afternoons.

The weather is typical for October, which is considered the wettest of Costa Rica’s rainy months. IMF experts hope the rains will help make up for a severe drought earlier this year and an unusually dry rainy season.

Two weeks ago, the below-normal rainfall prompted water rationing in some parts of the country. Costa Rica’s Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) predicts that in some areas residents will be forced to live without water for up to 12 hours a day until June.