November has been a busy month for the Irazu volcano, one of Costa Rica’s most emblematic tourist attractions. Even though the high tourist season is still a few weeks away, the Irazu has been attracting a lot of attention in news media headlines around the world, which claim that volcanic ash, snow and even rose petals have been falling on the skirts of this active volcano. The problem with these headlines is that none of these events actually took place: Two were simulated and one was misreported.

White Skirts of Ice, Not Snow

Reports of snowfalls in Costa Rica are not new, but they never quite involve snowflakes. As previously reported by the Costa Rica Star, flowering coffee plants on a farm, for example, may look as if they have been kissed by snow flurries -at least from a distance. The trails of the highest land mass in Costa Rica, Mount Chirripo of the Talamanca Mountain Range, sometimes look as if they have been covered in snow, which on closer inspection turns out to be morning frost.

Not all precipitations involving white crystals of frozen water are snowfalls. Such was the case in early November 2013, when a video and several photos of a seemingly snow-covered Irazu volcano made the social media rounds. In just a few hours, these items became viral and prompted hundreds of visitors to flock to the Irazu Volcano National Park; alas when they got there the “snow” had disappeared. It turns out that an impressive hailstorm deposited a significant amount of ice particles, which melt at a much faster rate than snow. Hailstorms are not rare in Costa Rica; in fact, they are common in certain parts of the province of Cartago where the Irazu volcano is located.

It is important to remember that although Costa Rica is a mountainous country, its low elevation and proximity to the Equator do not present optimal conditions for snowfall.

An Eruption of Flower Petals

Consumer electronics giant Sony is known for its elaborate and nifty commercials that showcase their ultra-high definition TV sets. In the past, Sony has deployed hundreds of thousands of red balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco as well as an army of cute Play-Doh bunnies hopping around New York City.

Sony’s most recent commercial features the Irazu erupting millions of brightly-colored flower petals, which gently fall on a small town located on the skirts of the volcano. Filming of this commercial involved extensive video editing, but it did not use computer graphic imaging (CGI) effects.

Predicting Volcanic Ash Fall

A recent eruption of the Irazu volcano dumped ashes in 52 communities in Cartago and the Central Valley of Costa Rica. This volcanic event, however, only took place inside the computer modeling programs utilized by researchers of the Technology Institute of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: TEC) and the National University (Spanish initials: UNA).

The research team from TEC and UNA used historical data that goes back before the last major eruptions, which occurred in 1963 and managed to cover the head and irritate the eyes of the late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy when he visited our country. According to the computer simulations and modeling, the prevailing winds around the Irazu would spare a good portion of Cartago from the unpleasant ashes, but the Greater San Jose Metropolitan Area from Tres Rios to Escazu would certainly be affected.