Rainy Season in Mexico

Predictably, every year on May 3rd many of the Catholic faithful in the town that I live in, Churintzio, Michoacan in the Western Central Highlands of Mexico climb the steep and rocky hill to where there is La Santa Cruz. Once all of the worshippers have arrived at the large concrete cross that overlooks the town, a special mass is conducted by the town’s priest to ask for a favorable “rainy season” so that the crops of this agriculturally dependent municipality may be abundant. Less predictably yearly, will be what the precipitation pattern during the rainy season will actually be. In the four full rainy seasons that I have experienced so far, only one could be considered to have been “normal” or favorable, with two of the years not having adequate rainfall with the country experiencing “drought” conditions and the other a record breaking one having far too much rain.

Mexico has two climate seasons, the rainy and the dry. During the rainy season while the country’s far northern regions of the country continue to remain relatively dry, the regions south of the Tropic of Cancer (near Mazatlan, Sinaloa) are most effected by it. Even though much of the literature about these seasons definitively states that the rainy season starts in May and ends in mid-October, that is often not the case. In reality, sometimes the high in humidity rainy season does last around five months while other times it may last between three to four months, perhaps beginning in mid-to-late June and terminating in late September; Addititionally, the hurricane season not only precipitation-wise effects the country’s coasts bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea but also impacts its far inland regions is “typically” from June-October. Once the wet season is over, the rest of the year will have very little or even no rain until May or June.

Although the amount of rain that the country experiences is highly variable year-to-year, the type of rainfall that occurs is somewhat more predictable. Most often when it does rain, it occurs in the form of powerful lightning and thunderstorms that normally start in the late afternoon or early evening and usually last from thirty minutes to a couple of hours; these strong downpours, which most of the time but not always are easy to see forming ahead of time, are referred to as “afternoon dumpings.” Less frequently, the strong rains may then turn into drizzle which sometimes continues throughout the night and even until after sunrise. Also, during hurricane season as a result of weakened tropical depressions inland areas like where I live which can be hundreds of miles from the coasts usually experience unrelenting torrential rains that sometimes last for one or more days as a result of the hurricanes that had pounded the coastal areas.

No matter when the rainy season commences, once it does, much of the landscape in the rain influenced areas of the country undergoes a remarkable transformation. Gone is the seemingly endless harsh vistas of parched scraggly grayish-brown vegetation that for months dominated the scenery. Instead, the landscape delightfully turns into multiple shades of verdancy and many degrees of lushness.

Using Churintzio and its environs as a representative example what never ceases to amaze me is the alacrity in which this transformation takes place. The following is some of what I observed in mere days as a result of the onset of the most recent rainy season which started in late June. The first major rain of the year which torrentially lasted 13 hours was a result of the aftermath of the year’s first hurricane and literally overnight replenished to about 70% of its “normal” capacity an almost dry pond with dimensions of approximately 150 yards by 200 yards. Moreover, a dry creek bed suddenly became a raging flow of water. Huge puddles of water, some miraculously to me already giving life to frogs, had to be carefully “navigated” as I attempted to traverse the trails while birdwatching. The just once hard as a rock terrain was now “spongy” if not downright muddy.

While the start of the rains immediately ended the life cycle of thousands upon thousands (millions?) of large red ants which just prior to their deaths morphed into insects with wings, within days it brought to life numerous species and quantities of other insects like grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles, dragonflies, lady bugs, and spiders. Consequently, the exponential increase in insects thus resulted in the appearance of and or increase in numbers of birds whose diets to a great degree consist of insects like golden-fronted woodpeckers, ladder-backed woodpeckers, Western kingbirds, vermilion flycatchers, brown-crested flycatchers, great kiskadees, groove-billed anis, and various species of wrens; moreover, the replenishment of the pond saw the immediate emergence of snowy egrets, great egrets, and killdeer.

As for the flora, the "overnight" changes were just as startling. Drooping paddles of nopal cactus suddenly became erect while the fruit of the cactus, prickly pears, in bursts of yellow, orange, and red were blooming once again. Various shrubs and bushes that were just bare suddenly sprouted to leafy life (along with providing a “home” to many of the aforementioned insects). From the trails that I was hiking, the not so distant hills were all of a sudden beginning to turn various shades of green. Plowed fields that had been lying dormant waiting for the rains were now showing the seminal signs of living up to their potential.

Yet, this year’s rainy season had started very late and the prediction is that the overall precipitation could be 15% less than “normal.” That is a shame as all of the major crops, corn, bird seed, and to a lesser extent agave, in and around Churintzio are unirrigated and are dependent upon “normal” rainfall to produce abundant yields. Too little or too much rain to those crops can be disastrous.

Yes, as always we will experience a rainy season this year in Mexico. Despite the predictions, the extent of it will remain to be seen. Hopefully there will be many of those afternoon dumpings even though that means that I will have to hurry back from my daily mostly overcast birdwatching/hiking activities just as the lightning and thunder begin to roll and roar in. More importantly, returning home I must remember to immediately tranfer my ten birds in six different cages from the open courtyard to the interior of the house.

However, really the only truly predictable thing will be that come next May 3rd there will be a mass at La Santa Cruz and its celebrants will be hoping for and requesting a wet but not too wet or too dry rainy season. Based on my previous years of living in Mexico, would I bet on that ideal rainy season happening? Hardly!