Caribbean Hurricane Network

- Updates from the Islands -

2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Active Tropical Systems: None!
Atlantic Hurricane Season is from June 1 - November 30

GOES Satellite - Zoomed in on the Caribbean (01:10 UTC, 23 minutes ago)
Scale bar (lower right) is 250 miles. [more satellite imagery].
See storm-centered satellite image and loop in the tools section below (if available)

Wednesday, November 18, 2020 14:22PM PST - Deadly Iota

Just wanted to refer you to Jeff Master's blog at Yale Climate Connections who did an excellent write up of the effects of Iota on Central America and Providencia Island. Not good. A good place to donate would be World Vision. -Gert

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 11:44AM PST - Iota

Just 2 weeks ago Eta made landfall as a Category 4 in Nicaragua, now, just 15 miles south, Iota made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm after slightly weakening from Category 5 status! Unprecedented in many ways, of course it is totally unusual for 2 Cat-4 storms to strike the same location, unimaginable. Moreover Cat-4 storms are very rare this late in the season. Before this season only 4 Category 4+ hurricanes occurred in November or later (of which Lefty Lenny in 1999 was one) since 1951, so now we have 6...

I sound like a broken record unfortunately, but this storm will dump a lot of rain in the same place as Eta did. According to the advisories, locally (though isolated we hope) up to 30 inch (75 cm)... This will result in deadly flooding, mudslides, ... Two weeks ago Eta didn't get much attention in the media while it was creating havoc in Central America because of all the brouhaha going on in the USA. Hopefully this time will be different. Help will for sure be needed! If you want to donate, Jeff Masters recommended World Vision in his excellent blog post of today. On his blog he also posted the image below by Pierre Markuse of the eye of Ioata just before it made landfall... -Gert

- - - Eye of Iota [Pierre Markuse] - - -

Monday, November 16, 2020 10:11AM EST - Deadly Iota

Good morning,

11/16 Update: Hurricane Iota did reach Category 5 hurricane status officially just a short while ago at 160 mph sustained with further potential before landfall. On top of Eta 2 weeks ago, this will be devastating. One of the worse things is many will not be informed Iota is coming due to the damage and lack of communications inflicted just 2 weeks ago by Cat 4 Eta. El Salvador and Guatemala will also be severely affected. 

Sadly, this will be a large scale humanitarian disaster between Eta and Iota. Mother Nature is not happy this year. 

Dave

... Older discussions >>

Current Tropical Weather Outlook (NHC/TPC):

en Español

Accompanying satellite image (pop-up, source: NHC)

NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL
700 PM EST Tue Nov 24 2020

For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:

A non-tropical area of low pressure located a couple of hundred 
miles south-southeast of Bermuda is associated with a frontal 
system. This distubance is producing gale-force winds, along with 
showers and thunderstorms to the east of its center.  By Thursday, 
the system could separate from the front and slowly develop some 
subtropical characteristics as it meanders over the central Atlantic 
later this week. For more information on this system, see the High 
Seas Forecasts issued by the National Weather Service.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...10 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...low...30 percent.

&&

High Seas Forecasts issued by the National Weather Service can be 
found under AWIPS header NFDHSFAT1, WMO header FZNT01 KWBC, and 
online at ocean.weather.gov/shtml/NFDHSFAT1.php

$$
Forecaster Papin/Zelinsky

More detail in the Tropical Weather Discussion or view the Graphicast Image

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Latest local updates from the special
hurricane correspondents on the islands:
- St.Croix [Nov 23 22:44]
- Grenada [Nov 21 7:03]
- Curaçao [Nov 18 17:30]
- Nevis [Nov 17 19:30]
- Trinidad & Tobago [Nov 17 0:53]
- Dominica [Nov 16 11:01]
- Martinique [Nov 14 11:21]
- St.Thomas [Nov 12 7:33]
- Antigua [Nov 10 8:43]
- Barbados [Nov 9 6:00]
- Jamaica [Nov 8 21:36]
- Cayman Islands [Nov 7 15:12]
- Anguilla [Nov 7 11:38]
- Belize [Nov 4 15:31]
- St.Vincent & Grenadines [Oct 30 10:39]
- St.Lucia [Oct 28 23:43]
- Bermuda [Oct 24 9:02]
- St.Maarten/St.Martin [Oct 9 10:25]
- Mexico (incl. Cozumel & Cancun) [Oct 8 12:04]
- Haiti [Oct 5 11:48]
- Montserrat [Sep 15 19:40]
- Florida Keys [Sep 12 17:51]
- Vieques (PR) [Aug 26 13:42]
- Turks & Caicos [Aug 23 18:28]
- Dominican Republic [Aug 23 12:45]
- Puerto Rico [Aug 22 15:42]
- St.John [Aug 22 14:46]
- Bahamas [Aug 3 19:26]
- Bonaire [Jul 31 18:49]

Only reports received for this season are listed. See the archive for previous years.

Links to excellent websites:
- Navy/NRL Monterey
- NOAA/NESDIS (floater loops)
- RAMSDIS Imagery
- Radar Composite - E-Carib.
- Caribbean/Atl. buoy data
- RT model guidance (RAL/NCAR)
- STORM2K forum
- Tracking Waves (McNoldy)
- Tang/UAlbany (model tracks)
- tropicaltidbits.com
- weathernerds.org (ensembles)
- CIMSS/U.Wisc-Mad
- Brammer/UAlbany
- ECMWF Model Forecast
- Jeff Masters Blog
- Brian McNoldy Blog
- more...

Storm definitions by wind speed:
- Tropical Depression <39mph
- Tropical Storm 39-73mph
- Cat.1 Hurricane 74-95mph
- Cat.2 Hurricane 96-110mph
- Cat.3 Hurricane 111-129mph
- Cat.4 Hurricane 130-156mph
- Cat.5 Hurricane >=157mph
More info in the Practical Guide

Wind force relative to Category 1:
- Tropical Storm 39mph: 0.28x
- Cat.1 Hurricane 74mph: 1x
- Cat.2 Hurricane 96mph: 1.7x
- Cat.3 Hurricane 111mph: 2.3x
- Cat.4 Hurricane 130mph: 3.1x
- Cat.5 Hurricane 157mph: 4.5x
- Irma 185mph: 6.3x

- - - Local hurricane correspondents wanted! - - -

The local hurricane correspondents are the heart and soul of stormCARIB. They are the people who live on the island and write to us what is going on around them. First hand very local personal reports instead of very limited or sensationalized coverage by the general media. Do you live on one of the islands? We need your help! We are looking for more people who are interested in sending us a few paragraphs about the situation on your island before, during and after a storm hits. You don't need to be a weatherman or expert on the subject, just share with us what you know, feel and see on your island. Your help will be really appreciated by Caribbean people living abroad with family living on the islands, future visitors who have their Caribbean dream-vacation booked, etc.etc. Reliable, not-sensationalized information is just so hard to get in crisis situations. Help keep the rest of the world up-to-date with what is really happening! We really need you, Georges back in 1998, and many others since then are proof! If interested, contact gert@gobeach.com.

WHAT TO FIND ON StormCARIB.com:
This website is all about the Caribbean. Here you can find information, weather discussions and local reports regarding tropical systems threatening the Caribbean islands. A central part of this website is the volunteer network of special local hurricane correspondents, living on the islands, who will report, when need be, on how it looks and feels like around them. Above also hopefully easy to understand weather discussions by me and Dave. In addition, as an aid in locating family or friends on the islands in an emergency situation you can post your 'plea for help' on the bulletin board. Also featured on this website is the Quick Hurricane Web Resource Navigator, for easy locating to the least overloaded webserver for National Hurricane Center advisories and the latest satellite images. Another part of the Caribbean Hurricane Network is the 'practical guide' to hurricane tracking with unit conversions, definitions, tips, links, etc. You can also find out how close the storm is and how many hours you have left to prepare plus you can map the closest point of approach of a hurricane to your location. New is the climatology of Caribbean hurricanes section. Find out when the real peak of hurricane season is for individual islands, view hurricane tracks passing by the islands over the last 150+ years. An archive with detailed reports of how the Caribbean islands fared during the 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 (incl. Frances and Ivan), 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 (incl. Floyd and Lenny), 1998 (incl. Georges and Mitch), 1997 and 1996 seasons are still available as well. Plus there is more, like storm-centered satellite images, make your own local satellite loop, etc. Hope you find the information on this website (now counting over thousands pages with original content) helpful. Comments always welcome! RSS web feed available. As a side note I am now accepting donations as well. Thanks for visiting!

Maintained & moderated by: Gert van Dijken (gert@gobeach.com).
Weather discussions also by Dave McDermott, St.Thomas, USVI.

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Disclaimer
The information on these pages is derived from weather statements provided by the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, and others, and from hurricane correspondents in the Caribbean. I tried to translate the official weather statements in more layman's terms. Also, I tried to fill the gap in reporting on what is happening in the Caribbean, instead of the US (there are already many other good website which focus on the US). Keep in mind that my statements are my own interpretations from the information available to me. Therefore, use the information at your own risk, and above all, don't use these webpages for making life-or-death decisions, always rely on the official and qualified authorities! Accuracy of eye-witness reports by the special hurricane correspondents have not been checked. They may be highly subjective. The author can not be held responsible for lost property, ruined vacations and the like. Despite all this I hope you found the webpage informative and useful. These pages do not have a commercial intent. GoBeach Vacations provided the means and opportunity to start all this. 'Unfortunately' this website has become too popular, placing too much load on the gobeach.com webservers. Luckily, starting in 2000, my excellent webhost provider, pairNetworks, liked my website so much that they support services whenever they can. Comments are always welcome. Just send a note to gert@gobeach.com. Gert