August 2020 was the second warmest August in Mexico since 1953, with an average temperature of 26.6 C, 2.9 degrees above average.
The National Meteorological Service reports that August 2019 was the warmest with an average temperature of 27, but two high-temperature records were broken this year. The first was on August 14 when Mexicali, Baja California, reached 50.2 C. The second record was broken on August 18 in Sahuaripa, Sonora, with a high of 48 C.
“The high temperatures that were recorded during the month of August were generated by a high-pressure system in the middle and upper levels of the atmosphere, over 3,000 meters high, which was positioned over northern Mexico since the month of July, and later in August it moved to the northwest of the country,” the National Water Commission said.
For the rest of the hurricane season, which ends in both the Atlantic and Pacific on November 30, more storms are expected to form. However, rainfall in northern and central Mexico is expected to remain below average, whereas on the Pacific coast, in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Yucatán Peninsula above-average rainfall is expected due to the La Niña phenomenon.
La Niña is present when the Pacific Ocean’s temperature is cooler than average, and it can mean less chance of storm formation in the Pacific. It has the opposite effect on the Atlantic Ocean, where between 19 and 25 named storms are forecast this season due to the phenomenon. Twenty storms have been named thus far in the Atlantic, and 12 in the Pacific.
Source: Forbes (sp)
