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- - - 2012 Hurricane Season - - -
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- Rafael in St. Kitts
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- From: Jeff Williamson <jeffben19782003 at gmail.com>
- Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:22:38 -0400
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Although I've only been living in St. Kitts for a little less than two
months, I've already experienced one hurricane (Isaac) and a tropical
storm (Rafael). Tropical Storm Rafael has definitely initiated me to
Caribbean weather very quickly.
Rafael was forecasted to hit the Leeward Islands as far back as the
middle of last week. Rafael arrived in St. Kitts around 7 p.m. on
Friday, October 12th, in the form of heavy down pouring rain.
The
rain that Rafael brought to St. Kitts is the heaviest and longest
lasting rain I've ever seen. I don't have a rain gauge, but I sure wish I
did because I believe we had over 12 inches of rain in the past four
days. I didn't realize how much we (Americans) take for granted our up
to the minute meteorologists and weather forecasters who usually
scientifically measure data like precipitation, wind speed, and other
factors.
Rafael brought much more rain than Isaac did and lingered over St.
Kitts for a longer period of time, causing flooding, erosion, and power
outages. The rain that had begun on Friday continued into Saturday, with
a short break in the early afternoon. At that point, I thought Rafael
was gone, but I was wrong. I headed to downtown Basseterre to snap some
photos for my blog and in less than 20 minutes the down pouring rain
came back.
I did get some fascinating pictures of a flooded downtown Basseterre as did many Kittitians, in fact the picture on CNN News St. Kitts Flooding
where two vans were shown swept into a small pedestrian bridge was
taken by a local photographer. For many more photos of the storm and
it's aftermath check out my blog at www.islandbabble.blogspot.com for some of the post Rafael pictures.
When the rain started up on Saturday it didn't stop until Sunday
morning and then after a few hour break the rain started up again. After
arriving home I checked Storm Carib
to find out where Rafael was at on the radar. Rafael was moving its way
straight north up the Leeward Island chain at a snail's pace and the
heavy rain bouts with short pauses was nothing more than the various
bands of the storm taking their turns unloading their precipitation on
the island.
According to Weather Underground the wind gusts only reached a
maximum of around 35 m.p.h. and I would have to confirm that the winds
weren't very strong throughout the entire storm's passing. The same site
estimates that St. Kitts had an estimated 205 millimeters or 8.1
inches of rain from Friday until today, but it looked like much more
than that.
As Monday morning rolled around the rain had once again stopped in
the morning but by just before noon the rain picked up again and the St.
Kitts government declared a national emergency and closed all of their
government offices by 12:30 p.m. to give workers a chance to clear the
roads of washed out roads and erosion from higher elevations.
As for now, the rain did make an appearance again around 4 p.m. for a
few hours but not at the rate it had the past four days. At this point
though the ground has been saturated so many low lying areas have a lot
of flooding. The Marriott's golf course and salt ponds flooded over and
the cleanup continues downtown with backhoes and bucket loaders.
Fortunately, as far as I know, no one was seriously injured during the flooding but I'll continue to monitor the cleanup.
The
forecast for the rest of the week looks like much of the same, lots of
rain, so if this holds true St. Kitts will have had rain for every day
for an entire week. The only advantage of all the rain is the cool
temperatures due to no sun shining through, but it would be nice to see
the Caribbean sunshine again here in St. Kitts.
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- Saturday Surprise
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- From: "Andrew Holness" <andrewh2510 at sisterisles.kn>
- Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2012 15:55:45 -0400
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Lawks,
Rafael snuck up on us here in St. Kitts while my back was turned. Should've
suspected when the Caribbean sea was throwing a fit this morning.
It's 15:45 and heavy, squally rain has been the story all day. The ghauts
are overflowing and knee high water is everywhere in Basseterre while
torrents of brown water are galloping down every road;
The wind has been competing with the rain and my coconut trees are showing
the signs of the strain.
Please be careful everyone, this is likely to go on into the night.
Tek it easy, keep safe.
Irie,
Andrew Holness
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- Last St. Kitts Entry
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:05:07 +0000
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I felt I needed some closure from a site I've been posting for for 4 years. We've gone from St. Kitts to Key West and are still in a bit of a state of shock about it. We're not really in the Caribbean anymore, apparently that starts with Cuba (which we're 90 miles away from), but if people count The Bahamas as the Caribbean (even if it isn't), then I'm saying the Keys are too. How's the weather here? A little stickier than St. Kitts. There's no question that we're sweating more in Key West than farther south. There's also a reason that the hashes start at 6:30pm here and not 4pm like we had gotten used to. Of course when winter comes, I'm guessing it'll be colder too. We remember the cold fronts that used to swing through the Bahamas, while we shivered on our boat; although that was in the Northern Abacos. I really hope we're south of that action. Until someone steps into the St. Kitts void, you'll have to count on your pals on Nevis, Keith & Frank, for a close-enough round-up of weather conditions on the big island. Signing off for St. Kitts and on for Key West. Best to you all, Renee |
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- Is it Over?
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 10:22:40 +0000
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Isaac seems to be done with St. Kitts. We had a couple of hours of rain in the early evening, enough that most businesses decided to just stay closed for night. Overnight, some areas got lots more rain. I didn't think we got that much down here, but maybe I slept through it. It looks like Old Bay road got battered pretty good from the storm surge yesterday, causing flooding and driving hazards. This morning looks like every other morning. Slightly overcast, slightly clear.
I think we're going to have to start making a Plan B on our move to the Keys on Monday. They're talking about evacuating. Sigh. Renee
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- No Singing Fat Lady
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:22:50 +0000
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Or it ain't over til it's over. We are getting backhanded by the final swirly that already passed by us (quietly to our south). We've had a great day. No rain, winds no more than 20 knots. Then right when restaurant owners/bars thought it was safe to open for dinner, in comes rain and gusts. Grrrrrrrr. Since this is expanding backwards (east) as it goes forwards (northwest), it's hard to say how long this will last. The airport is not reporting the right winds - they are definitely more than 20mph right now. At least the gusts are. And it got cold!! I had to change. The Caribbean sea-side restaurants/bars had all their furniture pulled up away from the high surf,but with these winds I hope they were able to draw them up higher or else some will be taking a swim. Only time will tell if this is going to leave us with some sand or take more away from already shrinking beaches. We'll take a look tomorrow a.m.
American Airlines says flights are back on track for tomorrow, but not everyone who's traveling is getting the same info, so who knows. Several airlines flew in today without a problem. Go away rain! Renee
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- No biggie
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:32:19 +0000
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We still didn't really get anything. We've had a brisk wind, although the airport is only reporting 21mph. Quick, but heavy downpours started around 2:30am, but they've been very sporadic. The rain is certainly approaching, but it doesn't look like anything major ( radar). I think we got lucky on this one. It does look like LIAT is still flying, so it's a shame American cancelled their flights ( SKB airport status). I put a few graphics and a little more detail on the blog, so if you're interested go for it. Otherwise, I'm just going to enjoy the cool temps, see if I can find us a place to stay in Key West (seeing as we'll be there in less than a week, assuming TS/Hurricane Isaac doesn't get their first), and give an occasional update should anything change. I'm feeling pretty badly for those who got inundated south of us. Be safe! Renee
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- Evening Report
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:19:22 +0000
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I basically have nothing to report. Nothing's changed. No rain. No high winds. Not a lot going on. The Antigua Meteorological Service says the following:
Skies tonight will be cloudy with scattered showers. Some of the showers could be moderate to heavy at times and accompanied by thunderstorms. The flash flood watch remains in effect for St. Kitts and Nevis until 6am Thursday 23rd August, 2012. This could be upgraded to a flood warning at short notice. Tomorrow skies will be cloudy with more showers and a modest chance of thunderstorms developing. A gradual improvement is expected late Thursday.
In other words, it may or may not rain a lot here. It's not even close to us on the radar, so I'm skeptical, but this system has grown very loooooong horizontally. If it did that, it could stretch vertically too, so you just never know. If you guys have later flights in tomorrow, you just might be ok. I'm off for the night! Renee
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- Afternoon Update
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:46:35 +0000
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Thankfully, nothing's really been happening up this way. The storm seems to have taken a more southerly track than predicted and it looks like Dominica, Martinique, and St. Lucia have gotten the worst of it so far. Current satellite pictures show the second half of this system pretty far south at the moment too with outer bands possibly reaching Guadeloupe later. If this system doesn't start a northerly track in the next few hours, I'm not sure we're going to really see much from this thing. We've gotten a lot of outdoors stuff done, taking advantage of the blah, but dry morning. About an hour ago, we started experiencing more frequent showers, but they're not heavy and they don't last long. The temperature is fantastic with almost chilly winds. I'm happy to see the storm behind this one taking a more notherly track. Keep it up! Renee
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- Isaac Morning
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:35:30 +0000
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It seems a # of you are traveling to St Kitts tomorrow (Thursday). I'm not sure what to tell you. The worst of the storm is expected to cross over Guadeloupe this evening, around 5pm. That's close enough to bring us weather, and a lot of times we end up getting clipped pretty good by the lingering 2nd half of these systems. We think we're in the clear, coming out of our holes, and then the outer bands come by hours later and batter us for a couple of hours. Those winds are usually higher and they seem to last forever. It catches me offguard every time. Maybe not this time. If that does happen, then Thursday morning could be iffy here. I would certainly be calling your airports ahead of time.
It is currently raining, but it's just a small blip on the radar. You can see that most of the heaviest rains are to our south this morning. We did have a grumble, but just the one. I think it's just going to be a dreary day and eventually the winds will kick in, the swells, and then the downpours. We'll have to try to get what we need done early in the day, in-between the action. We might fill a couple of tubs/sinks with water just in case the water company decides to shut down the pumps and will have our flashlights handy. Here's a reminder of the tips I posted when Ernesto was threatening. If you want to see what sources I use when I'm looking at these things, you can go to the Links (weather & hurricane) portion of my Island Babble blog.
Be safe everybody! Renee
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- Bedtime story
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 03:17:17 +0000
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Ok, so my final look at what NHC had to say this evening did not exactly send up any alarm bells for us here. It seems to have dipped south, is still getting beat up by dust, and even wind shear has increased a bit. I'm not sure what the heck we're going to get. They're sending a plane in at around 4am, so we'll just have to see what's happened while we slept. Until then, nighty night. Renee
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- Our turn?
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:37:36 +0000
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I've been keeping mum on this latest activity to our east, because I get tired of the chicken littles. I think there can be such a thing as too much information (e.g., germs), like the current capability of models to "predict" the paths of storms when they're thousands or even hundreds of miles away from land. They're usually wildly inaccurate when it comes to the area between Africa and the Caribbean islands and then we have to listen to non-stop banter about whether it will or will not hit us. Then the storm veers off to nowhere or is a dud and people start becoming deaf. If you live in a hurricane zone, prepare yourself starting in June (a few tips). Get your water, your canned goods, check your shutters, find your flashlights/candles buy wood or whatever you use to protect your windows, and then relax until you're under a watch or warning. Then start tying your stuff down and organize the goods you've had all along. Don't become one of those people who makes runs on stores the day a storm hits; it's expensive and unnecessary. We leave in less than a week, so have packed or given away most of our supplies. This is highly inconvenient....
There are two swirlies off to our east, and one of them finally came up to tropical depression status this morning. St. Kitts is certainly in the "cone" and is currently under a Tropical Storm Warning. The one behind it might go north of us, but we'll have to keep an eye on it. There is still some dry air that might continue to affect these systems, but warm air and low wind shear are not on our side. This is not expected to be a particularly strong storm, nor have wave heights been predicted to be all that terrible yet (about 3 meters), but I'd certainly be battening down the hatches and preparing for lots of rain. What we learned from Earl was that it wasn't the strength of the winds, I don't they were much above 40mph (which we've sailed in), but how long those winds stay at that level. The wind howled at The Strip for over 4 hours and started to rip apart awnings and dislodge roofing materials. Since you can't know how long this will last or how high the gusts will be or how much rain we're going to get, all you can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Be Safe everyone, Renee
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- Some Rain
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2012 10:47:52 +0000
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We did get some rain last night, but nothing like the folks to the south of us. Winds started gusting at around 9pm and by 9:30 the power was out. Seriously....We got some pretty good downpours, but they were gone within the hour. We had more rain later, but nothing major. Of course, people elsewhere on the island probably experienced it differently, but no one's chatting about it on Facebook yet. Skies look like usual at this time of day - partly blue, partly dreary, some quick showers - and the radar doesn't look too bad. I think we might be able to get some beach time in later. The seas are supposed to be rough, so rip tides might be a problem though. Renee |
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- Rain?
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2012 19:12:51 +0000
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Most of these tropical storms seem to keep undulating from something messy to nothing and back again. Even that storm that all the models had turning into something horrible, has fizzled (I say gladly and not tauntingly). TD7, I think just a tropical wave for now, has elongated, so I think our vortex is going to be tested tonight and into tomorrow. It seems that Trinidad & Tobago have been doused by this system and have flooded badly. I'd be surprised if that happened with the northern part of this spin off, but you really can't tell until the skies let loose. Luckily, we sold all our stuff today - with (repeat after me) hazy skies and a nice breeze, 'cause tomorrow might be a movie day or something. The Windward Islands south of us are already getting their part of this system, we in the Leewards better get our outdoors activities done while we still can. I think the first day we actually have a clear day, everyone should get concerned because that'll mean that the dust that's been drying up these tropical storms will have left us and that'll be baaaaaad. Renee |
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- More
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:33:33 +0000
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It seems part of our haze is not just our pink gift from Africa, but some black ash from Monsterrat. A couple of days ago their volcano burped. The black soles of our feet attest to that. So far it does seem that TD7/Gordon
is doing the exact same thing TS Ernesto did. It's going a little
slower though. St. Kitts' forecasts show rain Sunday and/or Monday from
that system, but last time we didn't get "squat" so maybe this time we
won't either. What the slight swells we had from that storm did
do, however, was take a good chunk of sand away from the beach in
Frigate Bay/The Strip. It does look like the weather cone is stretching a
little farther north than the last system, which means some gusty winds
(which equals power outages) and swells and possibly more beach erosion
for us. Waves
so far are predicted to be around 9' on Sunday (about the same
predictions as last time). Of course, all the system has to do is jiggle
a little to the north and things get a little more exciting, but
nothing like what slapped Mexico this week.
In the last post, I mentioned how models and their analysts were
squawking about a tropical wave that hadn't even left the African
continent yet. Before it even got 1/2 way off, yesterday there was an NHC circle
around the darn thing. This morning, the system (Invest 93L) is still
exiting the coast and is at 50% probability of turning into something
nasty. Models have it going waaaay northeast of us, so we're not worried about it, but Bermuda will have to keep an eye out. Renee
A shout out to Capt. Burton ( Thanks!) |
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- Hey! Who took our air?
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2012 10:25:37 +0000
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It's a bit stifling this morning. What's left of TS Florence is just north of us and seems to have taken some of our air. It's hazy as usual, but since it seems to be saving our butts with all these tropical waves coming at us ( Accuweather says #24 is about to come off Africa), I won't complain. What's likely to become Gordon has tracks all over the place, and nothing I've read so far, is too convinced it's going to develop into anything major. The heavy dust in the air has been quite detrimental to these things (at least on our end). I guess we'll have to keep an eye out though, because every site I've read in the past few days seems to be very concerned about tropical wave #24, which isn't even over water yet. Eyes east! Renee |
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- Nice weather
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 10:33:09 +0000
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We did make it to Nevis this past Saturday and while it was swelly enough to make 4 people sick on the way over, seas were calm by the time we returned. TS Florence went poof and we've been enjoying really nice weather the past couple of days. We've had a several short bouts of muggy, buggy days, but overall this summer has been quite pleasant so far. Nights are still cool enough to enjoy - no a/c, fans at half power, a sheet on by morning - days aren't miserably humid. The haze has been a strange feature this year, but maybe that's what's keeping the moisture down. We've got a couple more yellow circles brought to us by the NHC to our east so continue to keep an eye out. It looks like we'll be leaving St. Kitts for good at the end of the month, so I'll have to switch to being a Key West StormCarib correspondent. Worst things have happened...Renee |
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- That's it?
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2012 10:01:28 +0000
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Incredibly, we were surrounded by rain starting at 2pm and barely got any. It rained a little at 2pm, cleared up, rained a little at 6pm, cleared up, got windy at 9pm - the power went out for an hour - and that's it. No rain overnight. That strange force field that St. Kitts seems to experience definitely kicked in on this one (see photo). The radar looked like that for hours - us in the clear and turmoil all around. The temps were so wonderful, we didn't even need the ceiling fans once the current came back on. Today we have the usual overcast morning, which will clear as the sun gets warmer. I can hear the waves crashing on shore, so am guessing we have a swell, but hopefully it'll die down before noon for our trip to Nevis. BTW, for those of you who live here and wonder why the current goes out when it's windy, here's what SKELEC posted on Facebook last night (after getting many complaints): "90% of our grid is overhead. By that we have high and low voltage wires overhead. When there is high winds the lines in close proximity to each other can touch or come in close contact with each other. That can lead to outages, fluctuations etc." We've been without power 3 times this week. It's been a year since the grid changed hands. The only thing that's changed is that electricity is more expensive and rumor has it they're going to raise rates again. Gonna be a lot of people reading by candlelight...Renee |
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- Our turn
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 17:42:35 +0000
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So the rain has come...It's been nice and breezy and sunny until just a few minutes ago, but I had been noticing the slow creep on the radar for a couple of hours. I think it's going to be wet here awhile. Renee |
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- Practice Run
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 11:22:03 +0000
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When I first looked at the satellite photos this morning, my first thoughts were "Where'd it go?" Then I realized there was a tiny little blob over St. Lucia and realized Ernesto had greatly diminished. I'm surprised it's still packing rather stiff winds (about 40mph), but at least it's still flying along at 24mph. Swells here are still supposed to reach us tonight, ranging anywhere from 6 to 12 feet by Saturday, but I'm thinking it'll be more like 8 to 10. Still not necessarily fun if sailing unless the intervals between them are long, but we'll just have to see. We could experience a few showers here and there as any moist air spins north. The radar does show some moisture out and about. There's already another Invest behind this one, expected to become Florence and be in our area by Wed or Thur of next week. Let's hope she stays as benign has Ernesto has (so far). Renee |
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- And Ernesto is born
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 21:53:19 +0000
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Does it make anyone else nervous that all the analysts keep saying that they don't expect the storm to develop much more than the prior report and then you notice that the winds are up 20mph since the last write-up? The worst of it will be far south of us, barring some unexpected, unlikely northerly turn overnight. One site has wind predictions in our area the highest on Saturday at 35mph, and s ea conditions have gone from a high of 9 feet to over 12 feet (3.8 meters) in the past 4 hours. Of course, that was just one source. WindGuru seems to be unimpressed with the whole thing, with 5 foot seas and 18mph winds. My Forecast is in the middle of the two, with 10 foot seas on Saturday and 25mph winds. Let's see who's right...Renee |
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- Getting a break?
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 10:26:04 +0000
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TD5 is still going pretty fast, 21mph this morning. Yesterday, Weather Underground analysis suggested the storm would get pretty beat up at around 13N and its about there now. We're at about 15N. Yesterday, models of the system started taking it a little closer to us, but it seems to have lost it's northerly component for now. This morning, models still have it going south of us and tropical storm watches are in affect from Guadeloupe (about 70 miles south of Nevis) down to Grenada. It's interesting that the storm is expected to affect Barbados early Friday am, before moving onto Martinique but it's still "too early" to tell for sure where it's going. I guess we won't know til it crosses someone. Current wind is at 35mph, gusting at 40mph. I suppose if we're going to get any action, it'll be late Friday/early Saturday. No one's expecting this to be a major storm for anyone, but as usual flooding could be an issue. There's no good way to prepare for that other than watching where you drive and keeping an eye out for mudslides if you live in an area prone to those. Will look at it again later today and see if we're talking about TS Ernesto by then. Renee |
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- Break
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 10:51:32 +0000
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Luckily the rain stopped by early afternoon so flooding could recede. One road is cracked up the middle and closed to traffic (a portion of College St). The system went out with a bang, when around 6pm we had one more thunder-boomer come through and knock out our electricity for 1/2 hour. Good riddance. Now we watch what may eventually be Ernesto head west, creeping our way. None of the tracking models have the system coming this far north (yet), so I'm not overly worried about it (yet), but it looks like yet another system has moved off the African coast and could be a problem for someone by the following weekend. Of course, we are now having to plan for some traveling, so this could be fun (she says sarcastically). If you're vacationing here in the next couple of months, it's time to start watching this stuff and having plan B's. You took a chance to get the cheap rates, but this is why they're cheap. You now have to hope your vacation falls in-between tropical systems. That's life in the Caribbean! Renee ( www.IslandBabble.blogspot.com) |
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- Drying?
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:51:00 +0000
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Well, that was one sloooow system. We had the bottom of a raincloud over us for waaaaaay too long dousing us before finally passing completely over and giving us a break. It also took a bit too long to get a flooding advisory. By the time it came out (about 4 hours too late), you could see clear skies coming. There is still some stuff showing on the radar to our east that might still pass over in the next hour or two, but that should be it (if it even happens). I hope we get a chance to dry out before the next system this weekend. Our ghauts are definitely flowing and one area under construction didn't fare too well (Photos from St. Kitts-Nevis Times & James "Barman" Hanley). Watch where you're driving until the water flows through. I think rainy season is officially upon us. Renee |
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- Wet
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:49:06 +0000
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By noon yesterday (Monday), we had almost 2 inches of rain on the SE Peninsula, but by early afternoon the rain pretty much stopped. It was overcast, but that was about it as lots of activity moved along to our east and went north. This morning, it looks the same - lots of mess to the east. It's been raining since early this am, a little grumbling, and some tendrils have developed which leads me to believe it'll be raining for at least another hour or two, but overall the radar shows the majority of the showers offshore. The forecast calls for things to clear up by early afternoon. Of course, there's another pretty vigorous system (Invest 99L) moving quickly our way, expected to ruin someone's weekend. CrownWeather is thinking it'll cross over south of us, but I think it's way too early to tell. The fact that we have a 4-day weekend coming might jinx us. We'll be watching. Renee |
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- It's Raining; It's Pouring
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:44:07 +0000
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We had a beautiful day yesterday, but all the sunburned people I was with will probably appreciate the wet, gray skies today. I hear a little bit of rumbling off in the distance and the wind is howling through my closed windows. It's almost winter-like. Guadaloupe looks like it's currently getting the most of this system, but we're certainly getting our share at the moment. NHC has circled an area far, far off to our east to keep an eye on. That said, Accuweather is more concerned about the tropical wave currently passing over us developing into something. I think today's a good day to call in a sick day...Renee
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- Weather coming
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- From: R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 11:27:57 +0000
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Ok, so it cleared up after my whining on the last post. We've had pretty nice weather since then. The forecast is for some excitement tonight. Last time 3 sites predicted such at thing, absolutely nothing happened, but I do see a blob to our southeast, so figure this has more of a chance of actually happening. Enjoy the day! Renee
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- Rain
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:16:29 +0000
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Saturday morning was not nice. We were worried it was going to be one wet and muddy hash in the rainforest, but the day turned it a very nice one. Hazy (again), but nice. Can you see Statia & Saba? Yesterday was beautiful. Today, the forecast says " High pressure ridge will feature across the Northeastern Caribbean and hence shower activity will be minimal across
the Leeward Islands today and tonight." Really? Because it's pouring right now. I suppose weather predictions will never be an exact science. Renee |
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- More Kaboom
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:44:54 +0000
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More lightning. More thunder. The kind that rattle the walls, windows, teeth... Lots of dogs outside whining. Rain is on the way. Figured I'd post this before we lose power. Fun. |
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- Yowza
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:31:49 +0000
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I think it's fair to say that we had our first major tropical summer storm pass over last night. We had thunder that set off car alarms and torrential rains that went on for hours. I doubt it fixed our drought situation, but it was certainly a start. The morning brings strange yellowish skies and a brisk wind that I hope stays around. The past two days have been almost unbearably hot. Just sitting in the house in a bathing suit has brought on a heat rash. Is that ceiling fan on?! The radar still shows a lot of moisture out there, but to the south and going west. We're getting light showers right now (6:30am), but they're supposed to clear up for a while and then come back for more action this evening. Get ready to grumble!!! Renee
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- Hey!
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:37:26 +0000
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Hey, what's the big idea? Yesterday turned out to be pretty nice after the initial thunder storm. Today is supposed to be pretty decent and it's overcast and raining more often than not. This is not acceptable. Sunday is beach day. I might just go down there in my sweats and sit under an umbrella. Renee |
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- Thunder!
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 11:21:30 +0000
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For our Saturday morning pleasure we've got lightning, thunder, and heavy rains. We've had a fire that keeps flaring up and creeping closer to homes, so hopefully this will put it out once and for all. The forecast suggests we'll be enjoying this on and off all day, so I'm pretty sure I should go back to bed. Zzzzzz Renee |
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- Another correction
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 10:18:19 +0000
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I must have been really tired yesterday! The epicenter of that quake was just to the east of Anguilla not Antigua (you were right Sue). There were no reports of damage there, but a friend of ours here had been out when it happened and came home to a broken window, so it was a strong enough shiver to cause a little damage. While there weren't any aftershocks here, Puerto Rico had a couple of tiny shakes. A number of news outlets started publishing articles warning of an impending "big one" in the area, but they've been predicting such a thing since at least 2005. We got very lucky with the rain - which stopped around 5 and allowed for some fireworks at 9. Unfortunately, around 10/10:30 there was quite a downpour which must have put a damper on the Shack's concert afterwards, but we were in bed by then. It's still cloudy out there, but things should be clearing up. Renee |
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- correction
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 22:20:28 +0000
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The one thing about hitting the send button is you can't correct errors after you see them. I'm guessing you knew I meant explosives get. Everyone's adjusting their stats a bit ( USGS) ( ET) downgraded our trembler to a 5.1 magnitude. Still felt the same to me! The radar seems to be clearing a bit, so let the fireworks begin! |
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- Shake, Ratlle & Roll
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 21:52:12 +0000
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We just had a quickie earthquake in St. Kitts. Any of you other islands feel that? I"m guessing Antigua had a good jolt, considering it happened right next to them. USGS and Earthquake Track registered the magnitude at 5.2. Me and the cats were ready to head out the door (we're not surrounded by any other buildings that could tumble on us, and I'd prefer not to have tons of concrete of my own apartment doing so either). And yes, it is raining so we're not sure how the fireworks are going to go. We do get dry spells, so if the eplosives set up, maybe we can get them in the air in-between showers. We've got our sprinklers ready! Happy 4th USA, Renee
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- Windy
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 21:14:59 +0000
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Can I get an amen on this fantastic breeze we've been enjoying? It's almost winter-like. I say almost, because I'm still feeling a little slimy from the humidity, but even that's down since making a nasty appearance in early May. I even had to chase some laundry blown across my balcony today. Looking ahead, I don't see any end to our breezes, so I'm going to keep enjoying them while I can. We haven't even had any mosquitoes. A tropical wave is going over us again, so it looks like it might get wet tonight and possibly tomorrow. I really hope it passes quickly and allows us our July 4th activities - fireworks at the Shiggidy Shack! We haven't had rain in months - why does it have to keep picking the nights with long-planned festivities? Whaa. Ok - I'm done whining. Time to go outside and enjoy the night while I can. Amen, Renee |
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- What was that?
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2012 10:55:44 +0000
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It seems there was some moisture ahead of the tropical wave we were watching and at midnight, just as one of the Music Festival's entertainers were coming on (Toni Braxton, in fact), the sky let loose. It poured for a good 1/2 hour with a couple of lightning/thunder claps for good measure. There were one or two more downpours before it was over, making sure that the grass area everyone was standing in was mud by the end. Great timing - not! The skies and radar look clear for us right now, which means our hike this morning should be a dry one, but the trails will be muddy. I suppose it'll add some oomph to the waterfall at the end and the brisk winds should keep temps down for the hike. I will be packing my rain jacket (we are headed for the rainforest). |
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- Rain coming?
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- By Renee P <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:42:28 +0000
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I'm still nonchalantly watching the tropical wave off to the east. Our Music Festival is in full swing (through Saturday night - late), so I'm hoping that Crown Weather's forecast of a Saturday night/Sunday dousing is a tad off and doesn't happen until Sunday night or later. We need the rain, so hope we get some, but we're hiking a possibly difficult hike Sunday morning and would prefer the ground still be dry. Accuweather suggests St. Kitts will see rain on Monday, so let's hope they're correct ( Weather Underground is hedging their bets with a pretty standard forecast). Sunday bad. Monday good. If Mother Nature is reading this, please take note of this request. Thank you, Renee. |
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- And it begins
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:02:51 +0000
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We had our first rain in a looong time a couple of mornings ago and it certainly helped clear things up a little. That said, I'm at a loss to explain such a thing since there is still plenty of Saharan dust in the atmosphere. The NHC has given us our first yellow circle of the season off to the east. I see a long line of thunderstorms riding a tropical wave off the African coast, but am not sure what's making the disturbance worth a second look. Guess we'll find out as time goes by. Start prepping - hurricane season is here! Renee |
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- Ick
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:24:52 +0000
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Remember a couple of months ago when I said it was hot? I didn't know what the heck I was talking about. Now, it's hot. Some might say disgustingly humid even. We have visitors coming at the end of the month and I'm already feeling sorry for them. When you have rivulets of sweat going down your chest and back while you're brushing your teeth (not all that vigorously) and it's only 6:30 in the morning, you know summer is here. So is the Saharan dust. I've attached a photo of Statia and Saba showing as a blur through the pink grit as we flew back from St. Martin and turned toward St. Kitts Wednesday (6/13). I guess the positive thing about having such thick air this early in the season is that it should keep any tropical storms at bay. All this desert sand in the atmosphere dries things up so that wanna-be storms can't gather enough moisture to get nasty. Ok, but someone needs to clean my house.... The good news is that the ocean water was almost warm enough for me to get into last week - I guessed it was between 82 and 83 degrees ( buoys were showing 82). Today, I see it's at the magic number - 83. Perfect. I think I will be taking advantage of that this weekend. Renee ( www.IslandBabble.blogspot.com) |
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- Ick
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2012 10:55:37 +0000
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The last post applied until pretty recently, with heavy downpours overnight, but nice days. Things have dried out over the past few days, although it's humid. And hazy. The forecast calls for more haze, but I would go as far to say that the air is thick. I think I can feel it. I'm going to try to move as little as possible today. Kind of like what I do most days.... Welcome to hurricane season people! Renee ( www.IslandBabble.blogspot.com) |
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- Pattern?
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 11:29:23 +0000
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We seem to be back to the pattern of overnight showers (some torrential like on Friday night) and early morning rain activity as well. Its usually done by 8 or 9am, but it's putting a damper on early am exercise. This has been a pretty wet year overall, so it'll be interesting to see what the actual rainy season brings. We're looking at some windy days ahead, which I'll never complain about (well, maybe if those winds are over 70mph). I also noticed that the waters dropped a degree (back to 80 °F/27°C). Good to keep hurricanes at bay, but keeping me out of the water. Renee ( www.IslandBabble.blogspot.com)
A Sail of Two Idiots For Excerpts and Details Click Here.  |
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- Doused
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 10:47:54 +0000
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We had a great week with no rain and just enough wind to make it a perfect for family visiting. We dropped them off at the airport yesterday (Wed) and as we were driving off winds shot up and the sky dumped copious amounts of rain on us for a half hour. I couldn't even get out of the car to run to the front door without soaking myself so we sat in the car singing songs to the beat of the windshield wipers. Once inside, I discovered lots of puddles under the windows. We had another heavy dousing about 4:30 this morning (closed windows this time) and it's now drizzling (6:30am). The radar shows that the blob that was over us is moving off, although there are drips and drabs behind it. The weather forecast suggests a mix for the day. Guess I'll have to have my umbrella handy. Renee ( www.IslandBabble.blogspot.com)
A Sail of Two Idiots For Excerpts and Details Click Here. |
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- No rain, but...
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- By R Petrillo M Puceta <mikenrenee at live.com>
- Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 10:03:41 +0000
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The rain stopped in time for my book signing, which was an absolute blast, and it's been dry ever since. It's also been hazy. I had been wondering what that was about and then was surprised to read this: " In addition, Sahara dust from the African coast will cause dust haze to remain suspended in the atmosphere during that time." What?! Saharan dust? We never have that this early in the year. Last year, I don't think it made an appearance until August. Today is more of the same. It's been a little overcast which has been nice to keep the temps down. We have guests that are not used to this humidity, so the less we fry them the better their trip. Renee ( www.IslandBabble.blogspot.com)
A Sail of Two Idiots For Excerpts and Details Click Here. |
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