Typical evolution of cold cloud patterns associated with wet and dry spells over Central America during the wet season

A compositing analysis of cold cloud top patterns during the summer rainy season with time scales of approximately one week is presented. Wet and dry episodes are identified from 5 years of daily rainfall data from a raingauge network of more than one hundred stations on the Pacific side of Central America. GOES IR satellite imagery of 3hr/16 km resolution is used to generate the composites of cloud top temperatures at different temperature thresholds for the days prior to and after the wet and dry spells. This study will show: 1) the daily evolution of the wet and dry spells from the satellite composites. 2) the structure of the wet and dry spells and their evolution from the NCEP reanalyses; and 3) the diurnal cycle of cloudiness during the wet and dry spells.