CENTRAL AMERICAN RAINFALL. 
13 
II. The second type is in the northeast and has the in- 
vierno extended to January, with maxima in June and Octo¬ 
ber, as in No. 1. The verano is encroached upon ; there is no 
absolutely dry month, but April is the driest; and the verano 
rainfalls are relatively light. The veranillo is well marked 
and the rainfall in June and October is very heavy when it 
does fall—that is, its intensity or density is great. 
As to details for Alta Yerapaz, which are of great interest 
and have only recently become known, the following ac¬ 
count is condensed from the statements of Dr. Sapper in 
the last three volumes of the Meteorologische Zeitschrift. 
The chief climatic peculiarity of this northern slope is 
the occurrence of winter rains (October to January) in ad¬ 
dition to the usual invierno. In the winter rainfall season 
electric phenomena are unusual, and for a month or two 
completely fail; moreover, the rain when it comes is gentler 
than in summer, shows no distinct diurnal period as it does 
in the summer season, and may last several days. In short, 
it shows rather the character of the general storms of the 
temperate latitudes, while the summer season rainfalls are 
more of the nature of our local storms. During these win¬ 
ter rains stratus is the characteristic cloud form, the sky is 
often clouded continuously for days, and a light rainfall 
may continue with slight interruptions from day to day. 
The wind is higher than in the summer rains and the tem¬ 
perature is cool. 
From February to April in Alta Verapaz the weather is 
relatively dry; both the number of days of rain and the 
rainfall of each are relatively small. In autumn the sum¬ 
mer and winter rains are sometimes separated from each 
other b} r a short dry period. Sometimes the former passes 
into the latter without an interruption of the rains. In 1889 
such a dry season occurred, but in 1890 it was not distin¬ 
guishable. The two zenithal maxima of thunderstorm fre¬ 
quency can usually be distinguished and the first is the 
greater. In general the changes of the barometer are here 
small, the wind is generally light, moving east and west on 
