If you live in Guanacaste or on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, or you’re heading there soon, you’re now in the part of Costa Rica the government considers hardest hit by El Niño. The National Emergency Commission (CNE) raised 10 areas and three Puntarenas districts to red alert for drought yesterday.
For the first time, the red alert also covers the sea. A strip about 22 kilometers (12 nautical miles) wide along the entire Pacific coast is now included, because warmer water is hurting the small and mid-sized fishing operations that depend on it. The red alert covers Abangares, Bagaces, Cañas, Carrillo, Hojancha, La Cruz, Liberia, Nandayure, Nicoya and Santa Cruz, plus the districts of Paquera, Cóbano and Lepanto. That takes in beach towns such as Tamarindo, Playas del Coco, Nosara, Santa Teresa and Montezuma.
Thirteen more areas are on orange alert: Tilarán, Puntarenas, Esparza, Montes de Oro, Monteverde, Orotina, San Mateo, Garabito, Parrita, Quepos, Dota, Tarrazú and León Cortés. Another 48 are on yellow, including San José, Escazú, Desamparados, Alajuela, Heredia, Cartago, Pérez Zeledón, Osa and Golfito.
In all, 71 areas now carry some level of El Niño alert, with yellow signaling the need to prepare, orange requiring public agencies to mobilize personnel and resources, and red indicating an active emergency response. The reason being is that the rain hasn’t come, with the North Pacific receiving 43% less rainfall than normal from January through September, according to the National Meteorological Institute (IMN), while Cañas recorded an even greater shortfall of 63%.
The Central Pacific came in 37% below normal, the South Pacific 27% and the Central Valley 20%. That gap matters more than usual because October is normally one of the wettest months of the year, when rivers, reservoirs and aquifers fill up before the dry season. A dry October means Costa Rica heads into summer with less water stored.
If you’ve seen heavy downpours and flooding lately, you’re not imagining it. The CNE said recent storms in some areas don’t cancel out the deficit elsewhere. The North Caribbean has had 39% more rain than normal and parts of Limón more than 70% more, while the Pacific keeps drying out.
The ocean is part of the problem as the pacific waters off Costa Rica have run about 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal, and the CNE says sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific over the past five months are the highest recorded since 1950.
A key El Niño indicator has reached 2.2 degrees Celsius (4 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, which puts the event in the “very strong” category. The IMN expects that intensity to hold from November through January, just as the dry season sets in, and has said El Niño’s effects could last well into 2027.
CNE President Alejandro Picado said the aim is to get ahead of the impacts, protect the population and keep essential services running. Public institutions have carried out more than 200 measures since May covering water supply, energy, food production, commerce and vulnerable communities.
What you can do now to help the situation is fix leaks, don’t waste water and go easy on electricity, Picado said. Costa Rica gets most of its power from hydroelectric dams, so a drought squeezes the grid as well as the taps, and every liter saved now is still in the system at the end of the dry season, when rivers run lowest.
The alerts will stay in place over the coming months while authorities track how the event develops. We’ll keep you posted.
