I'm a retired American expat who has lived in Boquete, Panama for nearly 6.5 years. Boquete sits in a rainforest valley at about 3,200' (975m) elevation on the eastern slopes of 11,400' (3,474m) Volcan Baru, the tallest mountain in Panama. We are also about halfway down from the ~8,000' (2,438m) peaks of the Cordillera de Talamanca mountain range - the "continental divide" that separates us from the Caribbean side.
I've been trying to get a handle on our climate/weather by monitoring the local Weather Underground Palmira/Boquete PWS (Personal Weather Station), which is owned by a friend who lives just up the hill from my casita. I also monitor the nullschool dynamic global wind map, Atlantic tropics synoptic chart, and satellite IR cloud images. It appears that the north-south seasonal movement of the ITCZ and it's Monsoon Trough is not the only factor that controls our rainy season (April - November) and dry season (December - March) .
The biggest clue for me for when we get a really wet spell is the "bending" of the trade winds to the northwest rather than blasting over the mountains from Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean is a major factor. I think it is possible that if the patterns of the number and intensity tropical of tropical cyclones originating in the western Caribbean changes due to AGW/CC, that will affect weather patterns and climate here in central America.
The trades in the western Caribbean have been flowing to the NW for a couple of weeks now, and are now feeding STS Alberto, which is even drawing in Pacific moisture over Nicaragua. Pacific moisture is flowing over Panama from the SW, bringing heavy rains and T-storms almost every day lately.
In the past two weeks, we've had over 30" (768mm) of rain here, but fortunately, with the rugged topography, porous volcanic soil in this area, and many big roadside drainage ditches, we barely have puddles, much less flooding.