Bad news here but perhaps not as bad as else where. Tomorrow will make a week of a fire that I have been able to see the smoke of from my balcony. It is a land fill/dump fire with toxic materials naturally. I estimate it is between 5 and 10 miles from Panama City, west of the city. Thus the smoke blows into the city. The national health service has “evacuated” many close by but also has advised mask wearing in some places. Last weekend I know of some people who left the city for a while to get away from the smoke. It seems less strong today though.
Aerial firefighting is being used. That is at least one helicopter with a bucket. Sometimes I see the use of ocean water but it seems at times sweet water is also dropped. I do not have the science knowledge to know which is better or worse but I suspect that neither will help much.
https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama-shrouded-in-toxic-smoke-from-landfill-fire
If you are planning a vacation to Panama in the near future, I would suggest only a short stay in Panama City and then go else where. Coronado and David and Boquete and Bocas del Toro are fine. Those protests I wrote about in October and November are long over. The nightly news does show the occasional road block. Last night it was some farmers closing a road with tractors pissed off about money of course. But, when I was in South Korea, a dump fire there lasted for a year. Methane gas from the organics in the garbage does come back to haunt us.
But there is no snow here. It is 90* F right now with a sunny sky with light clouds. Carnaval is soon to start and Panama could use the tourist dollars.