March is the month to explain the strangest figure in the country. The Gulf of Panama, east of the Azuero peninsula, reaches its coldest of the year at 25.5°C. The Gulf of Chiriqui, west of the same peninsula, reaches its warmest at 29.5°C. Two gulfs on one tropical coast, four degrees apart, at opposite ends of their own years, in the same week.
The peninsula is the reason. The dry-season wind comes over the isthmus and pushes surface water off the eastern gulf, and cold water rises to replace it; the western gulf is not in the way of that wind and simply warms up in the sunshine like a tropical coast is supposed to. Boats have fished the difference for generations, and the upwelling has arrived every year for at least forty.
For a surfer the practical version is short. Playa Venao is cooler than the guidebook suggests in late winter, Santa Catalina is not, and no single number describes both.
