Published on Saturday, February 7, 2026

Pretty odd weather we’ve been having in the Lake Arenal area, in Alajuela province. In the past, I’ve been told that Arenal gets Caribbean weather. But wait. Hmm. Pretty odd weather in San José, Cartago, and other spots as well.

Climate change? Not hardly. Why, oh why, is it so complicated? Well, because it is, that’s why.

Let’s review. In the Atlantic, we have the North Atlantic Gyre. Gyre is a “series of ocean currents that move in a circular pattern,” so says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the South Atlantic Gyre. They arealso called the North Equatorial Gyre and the South Equatorial Gyre. Don’t ask why.

The northern gyre moves clockwise while the southern gyre moves counterclockwise. Since there would be a terrible mess if they butted into each other, they are buffered by three currents (not gyres).

They are the North and South Equatorial Currents, both of which flow from African waters toward the Americas. To complicate things further, there is a current running between these two, the Equatorial Counter Current, which runs from the Americas toward Africa.

 

A busy place, the Atlantic Ocean. The Pacific is busier; after all, it is bigger.

The North Pacific (or North Equatorial) Gyre is moving clockwise from Asia toward the Americas, spinning off the Alaskan Current as it goes. The South Pacific (Equatorial) Gyre is moving counterclockwise. The southern gyre is more complicated, as it forms an additional, unnamed current... Let’s stick with what we have.

Between the two gyres, we have the ‘children’, El Niño and La Niña, and they can be a naughty pair, changing the jet streams, the weather, the availability of nutrient-rich water, and probably a lot of other things we are only beginning to understand.

In the Antarctic, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current influences the southern gyres of both oceans, pushing colder water northward to meet with the gyres.

And now we come to another troublemaker, the Central American Gyre, which, it seems to me, is misnamed as it is a low-pressure area that forms over the Eastern Pacific and Western Caribbean and affects weather from mid-Mexico to northern Nicaragua. And us, here in Costa Rica? Yes, us, too.

Here’s the fun part. The last time I wrote a column about the gyres and their effect on our weather, none of my resources mentioned the Central American Gyre! Even weather scientists can learn new things.

So, why are we having colder, rainier, windier weather? Well, there seems to be a low-pressure area over Guatemala City, and the pressure in Managua, Nicaragua, is falling rapidly (as of this writing), so my guess is that the Central American Gyre is to blame for our current weather.

So, next time someone asks about our weather, you are going to be the smartest person in the room.

For further information on all this weather, I refer you to NOAA, though Wikipedia does a pretty good job of explaining it.

On Thursday, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) updated the country’s weather alert as Cold Front No.14 continues to affect Costa Rica.

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Find more stories about gardening in Costa Rica in AM Costa Rica Garden Magazine. Questions about this article may be directed to Victoria Torley, the gardening columnist, at victoriatorley1@gmail.com. More information about Victoria is available at AuthorVlstuart.com.
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