Meteorology experts from across Central America are in Managua this week for a climate forum that coincides with today's worldwide celebration of Earth Day.

The Central America Climate Forum is meant to help modernize the region's meteorology, harmonize its forecasts and update recommendations for disaster prevention, according to the Web site of Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER), a co-organizer of the event.

The forum, which began yesterday and runs through tomorrow, is also organized by the Regional Committee on Hydraulic Resources (CRRH), in addition to event co-sponsor the European Union, according to INETER.

No doubt, great challenges lie ahead for the region's weather analysts. Nicaragua last year weathered a Category 5 storm, Hurricane Felix, that many communities are still reeling from. Meteorologists say this year could get even nastier.

“If another hurricane hits, it's going to be very serious,” Mauricio Rosales, head INETER meteorologist, said in an interview in this week's Nica Times.

Over the border in Costa Rica, weather analysts also predict a wetter-than-normal rainy season, which is also hitting most of the country sooner than usual. Precipitation in 2008 may match levels of last year's punishing storms, according to Evelyn Quirós, weatherwoman of the National Meteorological Institute (IMN).

Costa Ricans are celebrating Earth Day – which this time falls within the U.N.-named International Year of Planet Earth – in several locales, including fairs and activities in San José's Plaza de la Cultura (starting at 10 a.m.) and at National University (UNA), just north of the capital in Heredia (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).