2023-08-30 20:10:04
We all hear about the santa rosa storm: that it always comes at the end of August, that it lasts a few days, that you have to be prepared. But really, is it possible that a storm always returns on the same day and that it has the same characteristics every year? Where was this belief born? Does it have support or is it just a popular myth?
The name comes from the Catholic tradition: every August 30th is celebrated the day of Santa Rosa de Lima, who was the first woman canonized by the Church in all of Latin America. According to the belief, Isabel Flores de Oliva protected her city in 1615 from a naval attack by Dutch pirates because, after starting a prayer in the Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Lima, an immense rain fell that prevented the attackers from disembarking.
Luckily, currently we do not have pirates about to attack us but it is said that from that moment on, the heavy rains always return on the same dates. However, this storm that so many generations identified has more to do with other weather phenomena and can happen up to two weeks before or after the famous August 30th.
The reality is that at this time of the year —when winter begins to subside and spring approaches— there can be some strong storms, because that is when the first warm air masses begin to collide with the cold fronts. In any case, this is more common in central and northeastern Argentina. In the south and northwest of the country, this type of precipitation is less frequent.
To be exact, the Central Observatory of Buenos Aires (OCBA) carried out a statistical study about the Santa Rosa storm where rainfall for more than 100 years was analyzed, from 1906 to 2021. The meteorologists measured the rainfall that occurred between August 25 and September 4 of each year ( five days before and five days after August 30), taking into account that, for it to be a storm, there must be electrical activity.
The OCBA results yielded a truth: the Santa Rosa storm, that is, a thunderstorm with abundant rain around August 30, not as common as thought. In the 116 years of record, storms only occurred in 56% of the years, that is, in almost half of the cases studied. In addition, not all were intense or abundant.
in conversation with Page 12the meteorological communicator of the National Meteorological Service Cindy Fernández clarified that “There is no scientific support” to believe that a storm will always break out on the same days and that it is only “a popular myth”. He also explained that storms are not common in winter but they are in spring, due to the El Niño phenomenon, and that the floods that different towns in the province of Buenos Aires suffered two weeks ago could be signs of an early development of the phenomenon.
This article was originally published on RED/ACCIÓN and is republished as part of the “Human Journalism” program, an alliance for quality journalism between RÍO NEGRO and RED/ACCIÓN.
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