- Updates from the Islands -

- - Curaçao - -

- - - 2007 Hurricane Season - - -

- Waterspout right of the coast

From: "Devin Balentina" <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 18:38:49 -0400

It's been a while since I've written something, the reason is because I've been away traveling with Nokia's Urbanista Diaries: www.nseries.com/urbanistadiaries

These days it's been surprisingly cool and it actually rained, something a bit uncommon I think for this time of year. There's a very persistent and recognizable weather feature that happens during the entire year and always catches my eye and signals me to be on the look out for water- or landspouts: a long but thin line of clouds coming in from Bonaire. This line of clouds is almost always parallel to the coast, sometimes it comes on shore. Today I saw this pattern again and was expecting a waterspout. I didn't see it myself, but my sister coming from the Janthiel Beach described it as: "a large waterspout coming from a long line of clouds" This happened just about 2 hours ago, something around 4 pm. Bingo! I don't know why these long line of clouds always form between Bonaire and Curacao, but one thing I know: most of the time they tend to form these Spouts. If someone could explain this that would be great. Also worth mentioning is that in the month of January we had a small "tornado" over the island. Damage was minimal, no injuries, but no telling if it was a landspout or an actual tornado where it could have not been stronger than an F0. Youtube video of report by the local TV 8 can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJov7EZffAY By the way the word "warwaru" is our native word for any form of tornadic or spout activity.

Cheers,

Devin Balentina

- chilly weather...

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 6 Feb 2008 16:05:11 -0000

So if the excess CO-2 is causing a global warming... how come it is getting chilly in the Dutch Caribbean islands in the tropics? During the past week we experienced record lows. Last sunday the temperature dropped even to 21 degrees celsius. Did the earth shift in its axis? Is the equator elsewhere right now? Hello Houston, we got a problem!

- earthquake somewhere in the Caribbean or Venezuela?

From: Marcus DeMaaijer <demaaijer at yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:30:25 -0800 (PST)

Has anyone experienced earth shocks on Saturday evening? At approx 10 pm local time GMT-4, I felt a earth shock that caused the wall of my office to vibrate for a second or two.

I decided to wait for a newscast but thusfar nothing in the news.

regards,

Marcus

- seasons greetings and all the best in 2008 from DeMaaijer family

From: Marcus DeMaaijer <demaaijer at yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:00:23 -0800 (PST)

Thank you for your time.

warm greetings,

Marcus DeMaaijer
Curacao Wildlife
Website: http://www.curacaowildlife.com
Email: demaaijer at yahoo.com
ALARM PHONE: +(599-9) 668-3500
Fax/phone: +(599-9) 737-9005
Skype: marcus.demaaijer

- weather sat vs radar

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 5 Dec 2007 16:16:34 -0000

The weather sats were a handy tool during the hurricane season, but currently they suck at monitoring rainshowers without lightning for Curacao. Yesterday for example, we experienced massive amounts of rain pouring down, causing the roads and highways to flood, causing massive traffic jams all over the island.

Right now the visibility at the southern seashore is minimal: at the horizon you xan not see where the sea ends and the sky begins. At this very moment a very intense shower is located in the region of Sint Joris Bay which is moving very poko poko towards southwest SW.

Thank God for radar at http://www.meteo.an/

ps: we felt that earthquake in the early afternoon last thursday...

greets,

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Rain all day

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:18:18 +0100

It has rained the entire day and as consequence of that the temperature has stayed relatively chilly (for Caribbean standards of course.) The meteroligical service of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba is expecting tonight mostly cloudy with no significant precipitation. Friday morning they expect mostly cloudy weather “with scattered showers and risk of thunder.” Friday afternoon through night: Partly cloudy, occasionally mostly cloudy with chance of a local shower.

Tonight I’m going to set the air-conditioning at a higher temperature otherwise it’s double blankets for me! The cold water is sure to wake you up in the morning…..;)

Bon Nochi,

Devin Balentina

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- Some activity, No Rain :(

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:16:35 +0100

Today the weather was dominated by calm winds varying from direction and high clouds. I did see a giant Blob on the satellite imagery this morning coming from the west and I think our friends in Aruba must have received some rain/thunder/lightning early today. Around 3PM I was at the UNA University and I could hear some distant rumbling in the distance. The rumble got closer and was very frequent, enough to get everyone’s attention in class (I’m a law student). I got out and could see that the northern part of the island was covered with dark clouds and there was frequent cloud-to-ground lightning. I just got home and finally could see what was causing the weather. A small area of thunderstorms had formed just north of us under the influence of the giant blob I had seen earlier this morning. (See picture: 241029 ) I didn’t have my camera with me so I took some pics with my smartphone. Usually when observing lightning it comes from the main thundercloud or other sub-thunderclouds in the vicinity of the main updraft, but this time I witnessed how one bolt came down from what seemed like a low hanging, unattached piece of cloud, strange. Anyhoo, it didn’t last long, but it was pretty impressive to see. Driving home I took another picture, and was eerily dark and calm (see picture: 241028) and the even funnier part was that we didn’t get a single drop of rain.

Au Revoir,

Devin Balentina

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- Great day for weather spotting!

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:25:14 +0100

We had a pretty interesting day today. From early this morning it was quite clear that we were in for a stormy day. The humidity was high, the winds were light and the general cloud flow was from the South. These are typical recipes that normally lead to a stormy day here in Curacao. Around midday the cloud formation fired up with some strong vertical build up, this lead to the formation of a single storm cell right in the middle of the island which was accompanied by lightning and thunder. Due to the light wind it stayed pretty much stationery. Noteworthy is that this single Cumulonimbus cloud was pretty small, but produced frequent lightning with a distinct downdraft/rain shaft. I did notice that the cloud was hanging pretty low at some location which made me think it might drop something, but it didn’t. This was the area where updraft was located (Picture: 8416). Well that was enough for me to decide to do some storm spotting. After this single cell died it was followed by larger areas of thunderstorms and showers (Picture: 8414). I’m writing this at 1.54am, but as late as 11pm I could still see lightning in the distance. So basically it has been raining off and on for the entire day with lightning in the distance and sometimes close. I managed to take a few pictures. In some of these pictures you can see a line of storms approaching from the North(Picture: 8414) and notice the strong base-line near the bottom of the clouds. (Picture: 8419, 8421,, 8423,8424,8425,8426 and 8427) In the other picture I’m standing at the bottom of the dying single Cumulonimbus and pointing my camera upwards(Picture:8433). In picture8431 there is something strange that I see often but don’t quite get it, it’s like the cloud is forming vertically, but it builds a light mantle of thin clouds. I have no idea what that is. And lastly you can see in picture 8437 how the sun’s rays are hitting the high cloud tops and as an effect it made a rainbow color, but this wasn’t captured so well with my camera. Pretty interesting day for weather spotting, but now its bedtime.

Cheers,

Devin Balentina

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- Update

From: Reynald Dovale <reynald_dovale at yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:43:49 -0700 (PDT)

After 2 days of rain thunder and lighting from a BIG wave passing by, I decide it was time for me to post some images for every one out there.

Best Regards,

Reynald G. Dovale

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- Something is brewing in the tropics?

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:30:58 +0100

The usual trade winds have died done, add the high humidity and the temperature seems higher then it really is. Is it me or is there something brewing just east of the islands. It bares watching…..

Saludos,

Devin Balentina

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- Another morning, another thunderstorm

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:36:23 +0100

Yesterday morning around 6am (around the same time we had that last nasty thunderstorm) I awoke to some pretty loud thunder. The loud sound and the way the light and sound came almost at the same time indicated its extreme proximity. Sound travels through air at the speed of sound which is 331.3 meters per second in dry air at 0 degrees Celsius. At a temperature like 28 degrees C (the speed is 346 meters per second. So sound travels 1 kilometer in roughly 3 seconds and 1 mile in roughly 5 seconds. What might have seemed to my eyes and ears as thunder that immediately follows the lightning could very well be at most 0.5 seconds of delay. Which indicates that the lightning struck roughly 0.1 miles or 0.16km or 160 meters away. I called a friend who lives downtown near Punda (Yes I woke her up around 6am, yikes!) and she informed me that it was not raining and she could only hear thunder in the distance. This shows how isolated the weather can be.

Today the sun is shining and the birds are singing and from the looks of it will get pretty hot today. A tropical wave may be heading this way, I hope it doesn’t dissipate before reaching here as we could still use some rain.

Regards,

Devin Balentina

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- More info about the lightning storm

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 07:33:08 +0100

Hi,

The rain I was talking about began with distant lightning Friday night around 10pm (Oct 5). By the time the real rain started it was already 3:30-4am Saturday morning (Oct 6). But the direct hits happened around 6 am when it was raining heavily. The lightning hit our antenna, but luckily no damage to report as I usually unplug all equipment during these storms. The antenna itself is still standing and no visible damage, but this is expected as it has happened once with no damage. Maybe this has to do with the fact that it’s pretty sturdy antenna. Also, you’re right there was no rain for the remainder of Saturday. Around 8 am I think al rain stopped. I live in the Gosieweg/Amerikanenkamp area and from what I heard from neighboring areas like Kwartier, was that they too had several very close hits.

I was following the weather on satellite imagery and I did notice that the most intense cumulonimbus clouds were mostly from Banda Riba till the central part of Curacao (Willemstad and surrounding areas, including Brievengat/Gosieweg and my area) So if you live in the area surrounding Sta.Maria onwards to Banda Bou probably you didn’t get much or anything at all.

Also I like to point the interesting pink/yellow-ish color of the clouds during that time, that really caught my eyes. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed that before, but usually when large storms (with lightning) are approaching the skies turns a strange pink color). Also interesting is how differently the thunder sounded from such close proximity. Usually when it hits close-by (but not direct) it has a deep bassy sound that keeps reverberating, but this time the sound shook the house and was gone almost instantly. It sounded more lick a very very loud “cracking” sound.

Didn’t you see lightning in the distance or heard any rumble in the distance?

Regards,

Devin Balentina

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- it rained? where?

From: help at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 7 Oct 2007 05:26:37 -0000

Devin,

where are you located in Curacao, because it did not rain at all on Saturday at 
my house. The sky was cloudy but that was about it. No thunder and lightning 
either other than some thunder in the distance. So lightning hit your house? 
What damage did that do? Upload some pictures of the where the lightning struck 
at your house. Or give me your address so that I can do that for you...

- Rain, Rain

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 18:34:19 +0100

It has been raining since 3:30am this morning, but a pretty intense lightning show could be seen just offshore since 10pm last night. At around 4am the skies opened up with constant lightning and at around 6 am things got pretty intense as our house got several direct lightning hits. I don’t think I have ever heard such a loud sound before. A pretty interesting experience to say the least. Another thing worth noting is the interesting orange/pink-ish color the sky and everything was colored around 6am, this was probably caused by the sun rising and the intense rain/cloud combination. Right now there’s a slight breeze with left-over high clouds from the Cumulonimbus clouds this morning. The clouds have brought much needed rain, including some relief from the pretty hot temperatures we had to endure during the past week.

Saludos,

Devin Balentina

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- 2 months 2 go

From: help at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 30 Sep 2007 00:37:28 -0000

With just a few days over 2 months 2 go in the hurricane season it has been 
rather quiet down here in Curacao during the past 2 weeks,...

- hmm

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 18 Sep 2007 20:32:38 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

(hmm...Gert, why does the software wrap my code and cause errors in the publishing of the code..?)

2nd try.....

NHC says that this wave we need to watch carefully because its development is slow...so we have to make sure that this one doesn't catch us off-guard again...like our experience with Felix...

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- heads up...

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 18 Sep 2007 20:25:36 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

allright... Storm 93 is expected to race over Florida and end up in the Gulf of Mexico 24 hours from now...from then on the models show landfall in USA, so no Caribbean island will be affected...and the next system is in the Atlantic...

then here we go...NHC says that this wave we need to watch carefully because its development is slow...so we have to make sure that this one doesn't catch us off-guard again...like our experience with Felix...

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- storm 93

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 18 Sep 2007 20:04:17 -0000

Storm 93 just stuck out its neck east of Florida....I am gathering data now...

- Satellite and realtime picture

From: Reynald Dovale <reynald_dovale at yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:44:28 -0700 (PDT)

Here is a Satellite picture and a realtime digital picture.

Look like there is a lightshow comming up tonight.

Best regards,

Reynald G. Dovale

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- all clear now...

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 17 Sep 2007 13:12:26 -0000

Whatever took care of Ingrid also caused the blobbette just due north of the ABC islands to dissipate as well.

ps: I forgot to bring along my datastick with the lightning pictures of last night in the skies above Curacao...It was quite a show!!

- from SWS instead of NWN...

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 16 Sep 2007 18:58:11 -0000

< /TR>

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

small update...

okay at 2 pm...

then at 2:45pm....

so it appears that the bad weather has shifted gears and is now coming from the SWS, whereas the NWN bad weather never reached Curacao...so nothing much happening other than light overcast sky in Curacao...

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- here comes the rain....

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 16 Sep 2007 16:04:42 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

Okay during high noon rainshowers are experienced at Aruba, whereas Curacao and Bonaire are awaiting their share from the blobbette that is coming at the ABC islands from the WNW direction. See sat image and a public access live webcam image from Aruba below.

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- tiny wave heading 2 Korsou sat image

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 15 Sep 2007 11:27:21 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

I finally did find the tiny wave that is heading towards Curacao with 30% chance of rainshowers on a water vapor sat image obtained from the US Airforce base in Curacao call FOL (Forward Operation Location)

Tur hende na Korsou....esei kiermen sigi wak e pagina aki pa bo ta na altura!!!

Current conditions:
20070915 - 7:00 am (11:00 am Z hrs)
Temperature: 80.6 °F / 2 7.0 °C
Humidity: 88%
Sea level pressure: 29.80 in / 1009 hPa (increasing)
Visibility: 7 miles / 11.2 kilometers
Wind: 135° (ESE) 7.0 mph / 11.2 km/h
UV index: 1 out of 16
Sky: Few clouds 1700 ft / 518 m; Mostly Cloudy 35000 ft / 10668 m
Waves: (no confirmed eyewitness reports since 8 p m yesterday)

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Good riddens Ingrid and hello you two....

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 15 Sep 2007 11:03:45 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Ingrid is heading in no particular direction right now, like a familiar name-sake is suffering from internal stresses causing it to weaken and eventually it will collapse in a short time period. This morning the computer models forecast a NNW path for Ingrid away from all islands, see sat image below...

... and if proven to be correct the above projectory of Ingrid is a blessing in disguise because two more air masses in the Atlantic have potential for development: see air mass A and B in the NASA sat image below. Not visible on any sat image right now (so not necessary to place a sat image of Curacao on this report) is the tiny wave that is heading towards Curacao. The tiny wave will arrive from the WNW by noon, and has 30% chance of producing rain showers. If visible on a sat image by 11am I will post an update, after that time I'll be at the beach with my twin boys building sandcastles...

Tur hende na Korsou....esei kiermen sigi wak e pagina aki pa bo ta na altura!!!

Current conditions:
20070915 - 7:00 am (11:00 am Z hrs)
Temperature: 80.6 °F / 27.0 °C
Humidity: 88%
Sea level pressure: 29.80 in / 1009 hPa (increasing)
Visibility: 7 miles / 11.2 kilometers
Wind: 135° (ESE) 7.0 mph / 11.2 km/h
UV index: 1 out of 16
Sky: Few clouds 1700 ft / 518 m; Mostly Cloudy 35000 ft / 10668 m
Waves: (no confirmed eyewitness reports since 8 p m yesterday)

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- storm nr 9 - Ingrid

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 14 Sep 2007 14:10:47 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Fri Sep 14 10:00 am

TROPICAL STORM INGRID
NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL

LATEST CONVENTIONAL SATELLITE IMAGERY AND A 0452 UTC AMSU-B
MICROWAVE PASS SUGGEST THAT THE CENTER OF CIRCULATION LIES BENEATH
THE LARGE BURST OF DEEP CONVECTION. DVORAK INTENSITY ESTIMATES
FROM TAFB AND SAB ARE 3.0/45 KT AND 2.5/35 KT RESPECTIVELY. SINCE A
NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE CONDUCTING ANOTHER RESEARCH MISSION IS
CURRENTLY EN ROUTE TO INVESTIGATE THE CYCLONE...I WILL HOLD OFF
INCREASING THE INITIA L INTENSITY UNTIL A MORE ACCURATE MEASUREMENT
CAN BE TAKEN. SO...INGRID WILL BE MAINTAINED AS A 35 KT TROPICAL
STORM FOR THIS ADVISORY.

THE PRIMARY MECHANISM THAT WILL AFFECT THE FUTURE INTENSITY OF
INGRID WILL BE THE AMOUNT OF SHEAR THE CYCLONE ENCOUNTERS OVER THE
NEXT 5 DAYS. ABOUT 10-15 KNOTS OF WEST-SOUTHWESTERLY SHEAR IS
CURRENTLY AFFECTING INGRID...WHICH SHOULD PERSIST FOR THE NEXT
24-36 HOURS. THEREAFTER...THE SHEAR IS EXPECTED TO STRENGTHEN
HAMPERING INGRID FROM INTENSIFYING FURTHER. THE OFFICIAL INTENSITY
FORECAST ALLOWS FOR SOME STRENGTHENING IN THE NEAR TERM FOLLOWED BY
GRADUAL WEAKENING. THIS FOLLOWS CLOSELY WITH THE PREVIOUS FORECAST
AND IS CONSISTENT WITH A BLEND OF THE SHIPS/LGE AND FSSE INTENSITY
GUIDANCE.

THE INITIAL MOTION IS ESTIMATED AROUND 300/6. INGRID IS IN A WEAK
STEERING ENVIRONMENT WITH A WEAK RIDGE POSITIONED TO ITS NORTHEAST
AND A MID- TO UPPER-LEVEL LOW LOCA TED TO ITS NORTH. MODEL GUIDANCE
IS IN OVERALL AGREEMENT THAT THE UPPER LOW WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE
SOUTHWESTWARD OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS AND GRADUALLY WEAKEN.
BOTH THE STRENGTH OF THE UPPER-LEVEL LOW AND THAT OF INGRID WILL
DETERMINE THE DEGREE OF STEERING THE CYCLONE WILL TAKE TOWARD THE
NORTHWEST. SINCE INGRID IS FORECAST TO REMAIN A RELATIVELY WEAK
CYCLONE IN A SHEARED ENVIRONMENT...THE OFFICIAL TRACK FORECAST
MAINTAINS A WEST-NORTHWEST MOTION THAT IS SLIGHTLY NORTH OF THE
PREVIOUS TRACK BUT SOUTH OF THE DYNAMICAL MODEL CONSENSUS.

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

CURRENT    14/0900Z 15.1N 49.2W    35 KT
12HR VT     14/1800Z 15.5N 50.0W    40 KT
24HR VT     15/0600Z 16.1N 51.1W    40 KT
36HR VT     15/1800Z 16.7N 52.3W   40 KT
48HR VT     16/0600Z 17.3N 53.7W    35 KT
72HR VT     17/0600Z 18.5N 56.5W    35 KT
96HR VT     18/0600Z 20.0N 58.5W    30 KT
120HR VT     19/0600Z 21.5N 60.5W    30 KT

$$
FORECASTER MAINELLI

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- storm 9 is humberto and storm 8 is still 8...

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 13 Sep 2007 18:37:33 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

Funny....storm 9 is now Humberto and storm 8 is still storm 8.... and below is its forecasted track, each triangle, dot, or square is a day from Sept. 13 at 00:00 Z hours. Curacao local time is Z minus 4 hours.

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Is TD Number 8 heading South?

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:16:50 +0100

The skies are mostly clear right now and due to the rain we got this morning 
the temperature is pretty cool at around 27 degrees. (Well cool for Caribbean 
standards at least) These past few days we have been getting morning and 
night-time showers, so chances are we might get some tonight or the next 
morning.

Watching the tropics and things have really heated up! If I’m not mistaken 
yesterday was the peak of the hurricane season and they were commenting on the 
Weather Channel that it doesn’t happen that often that on the 11th there’s no 
active system. One day and things become active. About TD #8, is it me or is 
this thing taking a WSW track instead of the Northerly track they are 
forecasting?

Bon nochi,

Devin Balentina
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www.thenokiaguide.typepad.com

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- blue skies are back

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 12 Sep 2007 19:43:36 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

On the radio this afternoon in Holland a familily member of mine heard: "Orkaan Humberto gaat recht op de Nederlandse Antillen af..." Translation: Hurricane Humberto is heading to the Dutch Antilles."

Well...yes and no.

All five islands of the Dutch Antilles are not next to each other. There are three that are 500 miles or so from Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. These 3 are Saba, St.Maarten en Statia, which are in the forecasted path of Humberto. So Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire which are part of the Dutch Kingdom, are NOT in the path of Humberto at this time. So it seems that some Dutch journalists ne ed a lesson in geography. Not too long ago one of the largest newspapers in Holland called De Telegraaf also made a big blooper when they placed a map of the ABC islands in their paper and they gave the wrong names to each island.

So I informed my family member that we are okay in Curacao and Humberto is not coming our way as the computer models below show.

This morning a little wave rolled off the Venezuelan mainland and headed straight North towards Curacao and caused island wide showers. The rain is gone now and blue, sunny skies are back.

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- 2 hours ago.

From: Reynald Dovale <reynald_dovale at yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:06:04 -0700 (PDT)

Greetings

This is how the weather looked 2 hours ago.

Make way for a Tropical wave.

Gusty winds, rain & thunder and lighting.

Best regards,

Reynald G. Dovale

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- Cooler temperatures: Rain rain rain

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:36:03 +0100

Today I got up at around 9am and was awaken by the sound of some pretty gusty 
winds. Right  now it’s 10:30am and it has been raining since. It started with 
some heavy showers accompanied by some fairly gusty winds. In the past minutes 
the thunder has been getting louder and louder. My prefect kind of weather! 
This is a welcome change from the pretty hot temperatures last night.    


Regards,

Devin Balentina
www.gadgetnutz.com
www.thenokiaguide.typepad.com
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- weer

From: "Moedt Bouwbedrijf NV" <bea at moedt.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:04:24 -0400

Net voor de bui aan

Bea Moedt

Moedt Bouwbedrijf NV

Landhuis Groot Piscadera

Curacao

Nederlandse Antillen

Tel: 8881611 - 8881644

Fax: 8881622

Cel: Willem 6705787

Cel. Bea 6704884

Email:Moedtbouw at scarlet.an

Willem: willem at moedt.com

Bea: bea at moedt.com

Website: www.moedt.com

Confidentiality notice:

The information contained within this communication is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed and others authorized to receive it. If you are not an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying if this email is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify Moedt Bouwbedrijf NV and permanently delete the email and any attachments immediately. You should not retain, copy or use this e-mail or any attachment for any purpose, nor disclose all or any part of the contents to any other person.

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- more projections of invest 91

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 11 Sep 2007 04:18:58 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Invest 91 looks like the next hurricane with a male name that could be problemsome to Curacao...
I love the yellow, blue, pink and purple computer model forecasts in the projection below. But the khaki one looks like it is gonna sneak up onto us and then... well that is the question right now...and then what? Let's see what path it has taken 5 days from now: each square khaki box represents one day forward.

ps: The rain and thunder has dissipated right now in Curacao, and whatever it was still doesn't show up on the satellite imag es...(shrug)

INVEST 91

Tur hende na Korsou....let's keep an eye on this one....invest 91 !!! Because the northerly projections have proven to be consistently wrong...esei kiermen sigi wak e pagina aki pa bo ta na altura!!!

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- september is the month to remember...

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 11 Sep 2007 03:39:31 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Okay....thunder is heard all over Curacao right now, but the lightning storm is soooo tiny that it does not even register with an infrared satellite...see below...whatever is causing the thunder and the associated rain showers...is possibly an outer band of the air mass that is currently SW of Curacao...and this system is rolling off the Venezuelan mainland towards Curacao at this time...

BTW...guess what is happening in the Atlantic and the Caribbean right now! It's the birth of invest 91, 92, and 93-L.
Nopers, this is no typo.. .read more below...

INVEST 91

INVEST 92

INVEST 93 L

Let's keep an eye on this one....invest 91 !!! Because the northerly projections have proven to be consistently wrong...

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- H! synergy P....

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 8 Sep 2007 12:49:00 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Long range forecast for things to come....(to be continued...)

Current weather for Curacao:

A small wave (see image below...) has formed S.E. off the coast of Bonaire and is heading to N.N.E. The western tip could graze Willemstad, but sunny skies are expected for Bandabou.

Current conditions:
20070908 - 8:45 am local time of Curacao (September 8 2007 - 12:45 pm UTC)
Temperature: 82.4 °F / 28.0 °C
Humidity: 87%
Sea level pressure: 29.89 in / 1012 hPa
Visibility: 5 miles / 8 kilometers
Wind: 90° (East) 11 mph / 17.6 km/h
UV index: 5 out of 16
Sky: Scattered Clouds 1673 ft / 510 m; Mostly Cloudy 34449 ft / 10500 m
Waves: (no reports in yet...everyone's 1 ear down after last nights's "H! Synergy Party")

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Happy Birthday to Bonaire's Flag !!!

From: Marcus DeMaaijer <demaaijer at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 13:28:47 -0700 (PDT)

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

Bonaire is partying today!!! Bonaire is celebrating the 25th birthday of its lag. The flag of Bonaire has a large blue triangle in the lower right corner and a smaller yellow triangle in the upper left corner. The triangles are separated by a white strip, inside of which is a black compass and a red six-pointed star. The blue and yellow triangles represent the sea and sun respectively while the dividing white strip represents the sky. The colors red, white, and blue also show Bonaire's loyalty to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The black compass represents the population of Bonaire who come from the four corners of the world. The red six-pointed star represents the original six islands of the Netherlands Antilles; Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, Saba, Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire. Noted vexillologist Whitney Smith was involved in developing the flag's design.

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- forecast for 6 days from noon today

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 6 Sep 2007 15:30:57 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.

NOGAPS Computer Model for a new wave coming at us 6 days from now.

This model is just a heads up warning....with Felix we learned to not bak on the longrange forecast but only to use them to get ready...for the eventuality of something being near us...

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Invest 98 at 11.6 N !!

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 2 Sep 2007 21:38:51 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Okay....Invest 98 has dropped South to Lattitude: 11.6N Longitude: 39.2W:

Time             Lat   Lon    Wind(mph)    Pressure      Storm type
-------------------------------------------------------------
12 GMT 09/1/07  13.5N  36.0W     25        1009       Invest
18 GMT 09/1/07  13.4N  36.9W     25        1009       Invest
00 GMT 09/2/07  12.7N  37.5W     25        1009       Invest
12 GMT 09/2/07  11.9N  38.7W     25        1009       Invest
18 GMT 09/2/07  11.6N  39.2W     25        1009       Invest

Let's keep an eye on this one....

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- pictures of Canoa

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 2 Sep 2007 19:08:01 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

I just came back from re-assigning the volunteers who have decided to continue participating with the Annual Gervais' Beaked Whale Watch which starts 2 days after the full moon prior to the Coral Spawning at lasts up to 7 days afterwards. This year the dates are Aug 30 till September 5th or 6th.

All 3 ABC islands, from left to right, Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire (yes in THIS order) have dodged a Category 2 Hurricane. Just like Emily and Ivan...so I am afraid that the next time something comes our way, people will be hesitant to take preventive measures...and reluctant to follow an order to evacuate the residential areas at and near the southern shores. I sincerely hope that people consider this experience with Felix as a drill and as a successfully passed exercise for preparing for the next one...which is currently developing into a hurricane in the Atlantic.

Currently Felix is a category 3 hurricane!!!
At 2 PM the government of the Netherlands Antilles has discontinued all watches and warnings for the ABC islands. At 2:00 PM the center of Hurricane Felix was located by an Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft near latitude 13.4 north...longitude 71.2 west or about 490 miles...790 km...southeast of Kingston Jamaica. Felix is moving toward the west-northwest near 18 mph...30 km/hr... and this general motion is expected to continue for the next 24 hours. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 125 mph...205 km/hr...with higher gusts. Felix is a category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Additional strengthening is forecast... and Felix could become a category four hurricane within the next day or so. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 15 miles...30 km...from the center...and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles...185 km.

Below are some pictures I took at Canoa early in the morning. I arrived at Canoa a few minutes before sunrise but could not take any pictures due to the heavy downpour. An hour later a fisherman offered me the shelter of his back porch to shoot the following photographs. Thanks Papito!

CANOA PHOTOGRAPHS:
(note: These photographs have been optimized and reduced in image size. The original photographs are 300dpi, 3008x2000 pixels, and 6 to 8MB in size. If you want the originals for publication or personal use, please email me.)

Playa Canoa at 7am

Playa Canoa at 715am

Big waves at Canoa means let's go surfing!!

The first surfers enter the water, how many do you see in the photo?

Ride that wave right up the middle.

at #$%^...just missed the point break.

DIVE! Or get run over!

This looks ohhhssooo easy doesn't it?

Nice run and wipe out!!

Riding the huge 20 ft wave!! Awesome!!

Towards the end of the 20 footer.

From left to right: waveboard and surfboard.

Riding into the wave...got skillz!

Waves by Felix are smaller than those of Dean, but still a great day for surfin!!

Hoping the guy in at left doesn't do a reverse manouvre...

Climbing the wall of H₂O.

The bodyboard dude...in action...this is NOT as easy as it looks!

Rocket Launch...Sky High!!!

Riding the wave with the body board again...

What a wild breaking wave...

Frog fins...very handy accessories for bodyboarding

A rare double wave...very tricky to surf...

Do you think that Gert will get upset if I code some background music into this thread for this photo?

Just finished lunch while uploading these pictures, I'm heading out again to the shores to look for some 20 ft beaked whales to videograph and photograph...

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Latest radar image from Curacao radar

From: Reynald Dovale <reynald_dovale at yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 05:24:23 -0700 (PDT)

Link: http://www.weather.an/product_images/high/cappi.html

Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links.

- Winds from the South. (fwd)

From: Gert van Dijken <gert at vandijken.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 11:54:17 -0400 (EDT)

Received earlier.

*
**
*** Gert van Dijken ( gert at vandijken.com )
**** Caribbean Hurricane Network - http://stormcarib.com


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 04:55:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Reynald Dovale <reynald_dovale at yahoo.com>
Subject: Winds from the South.

Willemstad ,Curacao
  7:45 Winds are coming from the south as the center comes to its closest point 
to the island.
  I would say gust at 30 km/h , sustained at 15 to 20 km/h at this moment.
  Just a lot of rain for now.

  Best regards,
  Reynald G. Dovale

- bye bye Felix

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 2 Sep 2007 13:15:48 -0000

USA NHC update:
AT 800 AM AST...1200Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE FELIX WAS LOCATED
BY A NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT NEAR LATITUDE 13.0 NORTH...
LONGITUDE 69.3 WEST OR ABOUT 380 MILES...615 KM... SOUTH OF SANTO
DOMINGO IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC...AND ABOUT 60 MILES...95 KM...
NORTHEAST OF ARUBA.

The storm winds never reached Curacao!!

- Felix

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 07:54:34 -0400

Update

wind from the SSW at 18 MPH gusting to 32 MPH according to our Airport

Where I am on the island winds do not seem so strong.

Sky is overcast and raining

Rain total 58mm

Preasure 1008 hPa

- Felix

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 06:43:26 -0400

Winds have started coming from the west not very strong.

Breezy my guess between 10-15 mph with light gusts not more then 15 mph

Total precipitation so far 40mm.

- here comes the sun

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 2 Sep 2007 09:30:47 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Even though the map shows that Curacao is experiencing sustained storm force winds, we are not experiencing any sustained storm wids whatsoever...the reality is far different than the computer model. Current wind speed is measured up to 8 mph / 13 km/h.

Currently very light rain is coming down. First light should arrive in a half hour so I am heading north to take some pictures right now to verify th e marine forecast that I received from Jeff Masters a half hour ago.

The Marine Forecast:
Tropical storm force or greater winds within 120 nm N semicircle and 75 nm S semicircle of Felix...with highest winds 115 kt gusts 140 kt. Seas 12 ft or greater in area of tropical storm force or greater winds...with seas to 30 ft. Elsewhere N of 11n winds 20 to 33 kt. Seas 8 to 12 ft. S of 11n E winds 15 to 20 kt. Seas 4 to 7 ft. Spiral bands within 150 nm of Felix.

Current conditions:
20070902 - 5:30 am local time of Curacao (September 2 2007 - 9:30 am UTC)
Temperature: 75.2 °F / 24.0 °C
Humidity: 94%
Sea level pressure: 29.77 in / 1008 hPa (falling)
Visibility: 1.9 miles / 3.0 kilometers
Wind: 250° (WSW) 8 mph / 13 km/h
UV index: 0 out of 16
Sky: Few 1000 ft / 304 m; Mostly Cloudy 9000 ft / 2743 m; Overcast 30000 ft / 9144 m
Waves: (no confirmed eyewitness reports since 11 p m yesterday)

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Felix

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 05:12:01 -0400

new advisory out

AT 500 AM AST...0900Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE FELIX WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 12.8 NORTH...LONGITUDE 68.7 WEST OR ABOUT 400 MILES...
645 KM...SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF SANTO DOMINGO IN THE DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC...AND ABOUT 85 MILES...135 KM...EAST-NORTHEAST OF ARUBA.

- USA NHC update

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 2 Sep 2007 09:06:01 -0000

- Felix is a Cat 2 now

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 2 Sep 2007 08:56:19 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

The USAF hurricane hunter aircraft has discovered that Felix is now a Category 2 Hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (160 km/h). At 2 am the rain started in my area and has come to a stop at 4:07 am. At 4:30 am light rain has started again. So far I have measured 110 mm of rain in the past 2 hours. Hurricane Felix is moving WNW at 18 mph. According to the Current WNW tracking path of Felix it appears that the storm force winds will just miss Curacao. At first light I will be able to photograph the huge waves that are currently crashing on the northern shoreline due to the stormsurge.

Current conditions:
20070902 - 4:53 am local time of Curacao (September 2 2007 - 8:53 am UTC)
Temperature: 77.0 °F / 25.0 °C
Humidity: 94%
Sea level pressure: 29.80 in / 1009 hPa (falling)
Visibility: 1.9 miles / 3.0 kilometers
Wind: 330° (NNW) 11.5 mph / 18.5 km/h
UV index: 0 out of 16
Sky: Few 1000 ft / 304 m; Mostly Cloudy 9000 ft / 2743 m; Overcast 30000 ft / 9144 m
Waves: (no confirmed eyewitness reports since 11 pm yesterday)

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- Felix

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 04:32:03 -0400

its now 4:29 the last squal that came by with rain brought us 24 mm that was in 20 minutes time ..at the moment the rain slowed down to a steady drizzle no wind.

- Heavy rain, wind

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 09:13:06 +0100

It has been rainig quite heavy for the past 15 minutes with some thunder. It had been really quiet, but the wind has picked up and we just had a gust of about 40 km/h.

Get news, entertainment and everything you care about at Live.com. Check it out!

- Felix

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 04:02:29 -0400

It's just before 4 am

thunder can be heard.

At the moment we are having gusty windows and the rain is coming down hard

- Felix

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 03:05:52 -0400

Its now 3 am the rain has slowed to a drizzle. No wind

This past hour it rained 6 mm.

Michèle

- Felix is getting closer

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 02:39:09 -0400

We had this evening a very quiet evening. There was no wind and if you looked up into the sky you saw scattered clouds which were floating by toward the south east direction. This was an unusual sight for us here on Curaçao since our clouds always come from the east.

At 11 pm the government of Netherlands Antilles placed us on a Hurricane watch. And tropical storm warning.

Its now 2 am and it has started to rain heavily. No thunder to be heard and no lightning to be seen and no wind.

Felix is coming closer according to the last advisory of 2 am

AT 200 AM AST...0600Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE FELIX WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 12.7 NORTH...LONGITUDE 67.8 WEST OR ABOUT 45 MILES...
70 KM...NORTHEAST OF BONAIRE AND ABOUT 145 MILES...235 KM...
EAST OF ARUBA.

Good news the eye will pass north of us. Interestingly Felix is still at 12.7N latitude which will place the eye of the storm fairly close to our island (circa 100 miles). We will see tropical storm winds I am afraid, which we do not want but the rain will be welcome for our dry little island.

I will keep you posted

Michèle

- the quiet b4 the storm

From: Marcus DeMaaijer <demaaijer at yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 19:28:46 -0700 (PDT)

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Ever since 3pm it has been an earie calm. Currently the sea has flattened along the southern coastline, but the waves are still approx 10 ft at Canoa due to the stormsurge. This weathe ris similar to our experience with Ivan: a gail with strong wind for a brief period of time ahead of the storm and then nothing..nada..njet. Felix is now a category 1 hurricane. Thank God the eye and the hurricane winds are according to the computer models 200 miles due north of Curaca when Felix passes us tomorrow. But when the storm takes a southern dip within the next 12 hours...THAT will make things interesting...but still it will still pass us by...

so sit tight and get some sleep for tomorrow is the big day...

ps: those of you out there who did not want to quit the whale watch...happy camping, sleep tight, don't let the lisembei bite...

Current conditions:
20070901 - 22:25 pm local time of Curacao (September 2 2007 - 02:25 am UTC)
Temperature: 82.4 °F / 28.0 °C
Humidity: 88%
Sea level pressure: 29.92 in / 1013 hPa (falling)
Visibility: 6.2 miles / 10.0 kilometers
Wind: 20° (NNE) 12.7 mph / 20.4 km/h
UV index: 0 out of 16
Sky: Scattered Clouds 1600 ft / 487 m; Mostly Cloudy 35000 ft / 10668 m
Waves: due to stormsurge northern seashore 6 to 10 ft waves (increasing next 24 hrs), southern seashore 1 ft waves (increasing next 24 hrs).

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

Thank you for your time.

warm greetings,

Marcus DeMaaijer
Curacao Wildlife
President & Emergency Animal Care Coordinator
Website: http://www.curacaowildlife.com
Email: demaaijer at yahoo.com
ALARM PHONE: +(599-9) 668-3500
Fax/phone: +(599-9) 461-0739
Skype: marcus.demaaijer

- update

From: "Martin Algard" <draglam255 at msn.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 17:39:15 -0400

TS Felix is moving faster than expected according to radio reports and expected to become a hurricane cat 1 by the time it nears Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba which is supposed to be about 100 km/60 miles +/- North around 5 AM. The sky right now is partly cloudy with high thin clouds with a few "horse tails". When the first rain band passed earlier this afternoon temprature dramatically dropped from 90 degrees F to 77.9. refreshing yes but cold by island standards. The air and seas are strangely calm.... an eerie feeling actually! The Island Government are opening up shelters around 6 PM and are providing free Bus service for those in need except in Banda bou. Barometer has dropped 2 points in the last few hours from 1014 to 1011MB storm center has a reading 999 MB. will be interesting to see what happens in the next few hours. One of the local cell phone companies just sent out a message to make sure cell phones are charged and to limit calls that are only absoutly neccassary as Felix passes........more later.

Marty

- one more time

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 1 Sep 2007 18:44:18 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Current conditions:
20070901 - 2:40 pm local time of Curacao (September 1 2007 - 18:40 pm UTC)
Temperature: 77.0 °F / 25.0 °C
Humidity: 90%
Sea level pressure: 29.95 in / 1014 hPa (falling)
Visibility: 5 miles / 8 kilometers
Wind: 70° (ENE) 10.4 mph / 16.7 km/h
UV index: 10 out of 16
Sky: Scattered Clouds 1000 ft / 304 m; Mostly Cloudy 9000 ft / 2743 m
Waves: due to stormsurge northern seashore 6 to 10 ft waves (increasing next 24 h rs), southern seashore 4 ft waves (increasing next 24 hrs).

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

- here pussycat..

From: marcus at curacaowildlife.com
Date: 1 Sep 2007 18:36:16 -0000

Weather past, current and future conditions
Willemstad, Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean.
Lat/Lon:12.2° N 69.0° W

Since Thursday I am out in the field coordinating the annual Gervais' Beaked Whale watch of Curacao Wildlife with 186 volunteers. I returned home 3 hours ago to take a well needed shower, and shave and to see what is going on with Felix. The whale watch will be postponed tonight at 9pm. The time and date when the whale watch is back on will be issued by the team leaders via word of mouth and via normal means of communications if they are available. Right now humans are more important than the whales. Those of you who called me on my cell phone and sent me tons of sms messages to find out what is happening with Felix...don't worry... Just read the info pages in the Curacao telephone book and follow its instructions. Take a chill pill, make preparations and sit tight.

At noon today a strong gail passed over Curacao with wind strength of 39.1 mph / 63.0 km/h. This caused some panic on the streets and traffic went dead in some parts for a short moment. This gail wind is caused by cold air that meets hot air in the cold front that raced over Curacao at noon. Right now the windspeed varies allot with speed up to 10 mph (16 km/h) and it is turning....

Rain is going to be the biggest problem to overcome when Felix's eye passes Curacao due north. Thank God Curacao will not feel any storm wind, but the sea will rise so surfers at Canoa take care of the rip tide that is currently already in effect. Swimming at the southcoast is also not a smart thing to do on Sunday, so stay home, don't go watch the enormous waves at Canoa and at Watamula and Boca Tabla. When you can't see the vehicle 10 feet in front of you during the rain on Sunday, that means you ought NOT to be on a highway!!

Stay home, stay dry, stay safe!! After the whale watch has been postponed, I will keep updating new data asap.

Current conditions:
20070826 - 07:40 am local time of Curacao (August 26 2007 - 11:40 am UTC)
Temperature: 77.0 °F / 25.0 °C
Humidity: 90%
Sea level pressure: 29.95 in / 1014 hPa (falling)
Visibility: 5 miles / 8 kilometers
Wind: 70° (ENE) 10.4 mph / 16.7 km/h
UV index: 10 out of 16
Sky: Scattered Clouds 1000 ft / 304 m; Mostly Cloudy 9000 ft / 2743 m
Waves: due to stormsurge northern seashore 6 to 10 ft waves (increasing next 24 hrs), southern seashore 4 ft waves (increasing next 24 hrs).

Godspeed to all of ye...

Marcus DeMaaijer

ps: Hey Reynald Dovale, nice pics but next time try to limit them to 750 pixels width and optimize them so as not to mess up the thread...

- Spiral Band earlier, all is quiet now

From: Devin Balentina <blue13x at hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 19:28:11 +0100

Hey guys, Devin from Curacao here. I’m the newest member of the local hurricane 
correspondents.  I’m happy to be part of the team. So let’s get things rolling! 
This morning the skies were blue with a few puffy clouds, until about one hour 
ago. We had a spiral band move in with thunder here and there and strong gusts 
of about 30-35 km/h. All is quiet now; all that’s left now are some high 
clouds, left over from the thunderheads (Cumulonimbus).  See picture below.

Regards,

Devin Balentina
www.thenokiaguide.typepad.com
www.gadgetnutz.com

_________________________________________________________________
Discover the new Windows Vista
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=windows+vista&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE

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Description: JPEG image

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- Fwd: Felix heading toward Curaçao (fwd)

From: Gert van Dijken <gert at vandijken.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 14:01:42 -0400 (EDT)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 13:52:37 -0400
From: "[ISO-8859-1] Mich�le van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
To: gert at gobeach.com
Subject: [ISO-8859-1] Fwd: Felix heading toward Cura�ao

Dear Gert
here are two pictures of our weather taken at approx. 1:45 pm
As you can see drizzle and very high clouds with small blue patches
Mich�le

Attachment: Bands of Felix.JPG
Description: JPEG image

Attachment: Drizzle 01-09-07.JPG
Description: JPEG image

- Felix heading toward Curaçao

From: "Michèle van Veldhoven" <mvanveldhoven at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 13:37:05 -0400

Hi Gert,

My name is Michèle I've been watching this system develop since yesterday morning. I had a feeling he might end up coming our way. Conditions looked right.

Its 1:30 pm here on Curaçao, the first bands have arrived. Some rain fell up till now 2mm . Its drizziling and thunder could be heard 30 mintes ago.

I live in the center of the island and we are not experiencing any gusts yet the wind is very slight if any at all.

Keep you informed

Regards

Michèle van veldhoven

- Feeder bands