The top three wettest and top three driest countries in Latin America

[Zanzibar]

This is something I'm interested in.

Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica have very high rainfalls because they receive rain clouds coming from two oceans (Pacific and Atlantic) , throughout the year.

Colombia's wettest region is the narrow Pacific coastal strip on the West. It receives over 10,000 mm per year, rivalling the wettest areas in Meghalaya, India.

Make sense. That could be why they are so rainy. But why isn't Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua as wet as those countries when they also face the ocean on both sides?

It is really intriguing to me how Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica managed to rival even Pacific Island nations like Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa which also has massive amounts of rain.

Indeed, there are cities/towns in that region where it rains virtually every month and almost everyday:

Quibdo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quibd%C3%B3#Climate
Lopez de Micay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B3pez_de_Micay

The wettest areas in Meghalaya still have dry season though unlike Pacific Coast of Colombia where it seems to rain literally almost every day.

[Zanzibar]

I'd say a definite yes to Haiti been drier. As for the 1400 number here, I'd say it is more or less an accurate approximation, cuz the amount of raindrop varies according to the region. Our north is definitely the wettest region, while the southwest is the driest, even having a dune perimeter in it.

What's the highest amount of precipitation the DR can receive? Does the northern part of DR also have tropical rainforest climate/Af where it rains all year long without a dry season?

Are you astonished by how the Haiti and DR is overall drier than nations like Brazil, Peru who seem to receive around 1761 mm and 1738 mm on average? I have noticed the same pattern for many West Indian islands such as Bahamas and Antigua-Barbuda, they seem drier than a lot of places on the mainland such as El Salvador, Nicaragua.

Btw here is another site showing the average annual precipitation worldwide (sorry should posted that in OP as well): https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/ind...CP.MM/rankings

Most of the numbers for each nations seem to be the same except that their are four more countries in this one. Except that some of the numbers for those countries seems very fishy and incorrect; for example, it exhibits Palau, a Pacific Island nation, having only 494 mm when actually the average precipitation for that island is closer to 4000 mm or it displays Vanuatu another archipelago in the Pacific receiving only 206 mm per year when actually it rain closer to 2000 mm on average per year.

[Andullero]

What's the highest amount of precipitation the DR can receive? Does the northern part of DR also have tropical rainforest climate/Af where it rains all year long without a dry season?

Are you astonished by how the Haiti and DR is overall drier than nations like Brazil, Peru who seem to receive around 1761 mm and 1738 mm on average? Like I noticed the same pattern for many Caribbean islands such as Bahamas and Antigua-Barbuda, they seem drier than a lot of places on the mainland such as El Salvador, Nicaragua.

The highest amount we can receive goes between 2800 to 3000 in the northern area, specially in the Atlantic coastline and the interior area around the Los Haitises/Yuna river/Samaná Bay zone. The latter area is our little Amazon with tropical rainforests and all.

[Andullero]

As for your question as to why the Caribbean islands are drier than other areas, Joqool, I will give you a small anwer: the plantation economy of the colonial era, which decimated many of the native forests and water sources of these islands.

[Zanzibar]

The highest amount we can receive goes between 2800 to 3000 in the northern area, specially in the Atlantic coastline and the interior area around the Los Haitises/Yuna river/Samaná Bay zone. The latter area is our little Amazon with tropical rainforests and all.

So the interior areas around those zones literally rains every month without any dry season? Fascinating.

Do you know what's the most amount of rain Haiti can receive?

[Zanzibar]

As for your question as to why the Caribbean islands are drier than other areas, Joqool, I will give you a small anwer: the plantation economy of the colonial era, which decimated many of the native forests and water sources of these islands.

Hmm so that's the main reason why many Caribbean islands are drier than the mainland? Damn it must be very lush and green when the Europeans first arrive on the Caribbean islands.

[Andullero]

So the interior areas around those zones literally rains every month without any dry season? Fascinating.

Do you know what's the most amount of rain Haiti can receive?

The most amount goes around 1700mm, in the Cap Haitien area, which is in the Atlantic coast of the country. As for the interior being wetter, it follows the logic of the economy of these islands: usually the plantations were close to the coast to allow easier exportation to Europe and later North América. In the Haitian case the pattern differs somewhat because the French also heavily cultivared the interior districts with coffee later in the colonial era, so there are very few patches with native forests still existing nowadays.

[Zanzibar]

The most amount goes around 1700mm, in the Cap Haitien area, which is in the Atlantic coast of the country. As for the interior being wetter, it follows the logic of the economy of these islands: usually the plantations were close to the coast to allow easier exportation to Europe and later North América. In the Haitian case the pattern differs somewhat because the French also heavily cultivared the interior districts with coffee later in the colonial era, so there are very few patches with native forests still existing nowadays.

Very intriguing. The French and Spanish divided the island into half side? Is there a reason why the French also cultivated the interior districts in Haiti?

[Andullero]

Very intriguing. The French and Spanish divided the island into half side? Is there a reason why the French also cultivated the interior districts in Haiti?

The French took over 1/4th of it, but unlike the Jamaican case (which was conquered by England with a military expedition), the French took up that 1/4th of island by stages. The Spaniards initially had the entire island from 1492 onwards, but they were neglecting it when they began setting up the colonies in the continent (which had the benefit of having more gold available at hand), so the colonists of this island had no other choice but to skirt the monopoly that the Crown had and trade with the enemies of the metropolis (France, England, Netherlands). To stop that contraband trade, the Spanish Crown ordered the towns of the western part of the island destroyed and the colonists relocated to the Eastern part in 1605, so when the French buccaneers began to set up their settlements there they only found vacant land, and as much as the Spanish Crown tried to exterminate them and destroy those settlements, the buccaneers always returned and rebuilt again, with only the indirect support of the French Crown. Later up in the wars of the XVIIth century, Louis XIV would force the Spanish Crown to acknowledge French possession of that 1/4th, and then he would move to make said buccaneers recognise his authority de jure.

The reason why the French cultivated those interior districts was that, once the Spanish got wise about this island's security, they couldnt expand further East from what they had, so they only had the option of cultivating in the mountains once the valleys were filled up, and as a sugar doesnt do well on high soils, coffee was the crop to go. Of course, cultivating the mountains also meant dealing with the African maroon problem, which they had mostly done before the slave rebellion destroyed everything.

[Duffmannn]

I am not convinced that the Haitian part of this island gets or have gotten more raindrop than the Domi one, sorry. I have been there, and I can tell you from experience that they have more dry/savannah patches than us, specially on the Southwest and Northwestern most parts of the island when the landscape becomes a veritable desert.

That´s due to deep deforestation, not by lack of rain. Happens in parts of Spain too, for example.