CLIMATE
Tim Allen

Cuetzalan is in the centre of the region of highest rainfall in Mexico, the annual average being around 4000mm.   This wet and humid climate being a result of the areas position on the Sierra Madre Oriental where it descends towards the Gulf Coast Plain. The wettest period is during the summer when large and frequent storms can drop over 320mm of rain in a month. Throughout autumn and winter the weather is wet and drizzly.  The dryest period, and subsequently the best time for caving expeditions, is during the spring with sunny weather punctuated by the occasional storm and short spells of drizzly rain.   Even in the spring, however, the wet weather can pose a serious threat to any expedition into the area, storms triggering flash floods in the cave systems with some cave passages filling completely - three expeditions have had teams trapped underground by flood waters.

An Understanding of the weather conditions affecting Cuetzalan is critical to any expedition caving in the area.  Three of the six expeditions have resulted in cavers being trapped underground by flood waters, two of which have been life threatening.    All expeditions have been affected by the weather to a certain degree.

Expedition Weather Reports

>>  NCC Expeditions 1991 to 1996

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