Guanacaste and Southern California

[sprite]

I haven’t yet visited the Guanacaste area yet but all the photos I have seen and articles I have read suggest a strong similarity to southern california as far as climate and topography. As all know, southern California suffers the occasional surge of fires and loss of vegeation and homes. This current round has even taken a life. Arsen is also sometimes responsible for these wild fires. But climate change has increased the propensity of this dry area to wildfires so even discounting arsen, wild fires happen often.

Does Guanacaste ever suffer these wildfires? If not, why not? The whole area looks awfully dry in the Costa Rican dry months. Even my property in the Central Valley gets exceedingly dry in February and March compared to what I am used to in Southern Florida during our dry season. I read about floods and even tremors, but never about fires.

[mediatica]

Hi Sprite: I live in Guanacaste, and it is somewhat like California (southern). We are very green from May to December and ‘dry’ from January to April. We don’t see a drop of rain from December to April typically. As for fires, I don’t experience that in my particular area (although Guanacaste is a very large province). There have been some isolated fires and even controlled fires on large fincas in our area. The controlled fires I assume help with issues of ‘wild fires’ and arson is not a big issue in these parts. I hope it continues this way. Through dry season there were not any fires such as those that are going on in California in the areas of Potrero south to Tamarindo that I know of. Also, there are many estuaries in the area, which keep the area around them green year round. The area near my house has two estuaries which keep it looking nice like the ‘green’ season year round.

[Author]

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