Climate Change Chart of Monteverde, Costa Rica

Overview of climate changes

Temperature changes

Across calendar months, the unweighted mean difference in monthly mean temperature was +1.50 °C compared with the earlier reference period; this summarizes the set of monthly means rather than a day-weighted annual average or daytime maximum temperatures. The largest monthly increase was in January, with a difference of +1.66 °C. This identifies the strongest monthly increase, not a change shared by every month.

Changes in rainfall

Averaged across calendar months, mean daily rainfall had a difference of -0.53 mm/day compared with the earlier reference period. This is an unweighted mean of monthly differences in daily rainfall, not a change in monthly rainfall totals. The monthly pattern includes contrasting extremes: January had the largest increase, a difference of +1.01 mm/day, while July had the largest decrease, a difference of -2.64 mm/day. These describe mean daily amounts for those months, not conditions on every day.

Changes in sunshine duration

The unweighted mean difference in daily sunshine duration, averaged across calendar months, was +0.25 hours/day compared with the earlier reference period; it summarizes monthly means rather than a day-weighted annual average. The largest monthly increase occurred in July, with a difference of +1.01 hours/day, whereas the largest decrease occurred in April, with a difference of -0.41 hours/day. These monthly mean daily hours indicate contrasting shifts across the calendar, not the duration of sunshine on every individual day.