- Updates from the Islands -

- - Barbados - -

- - - 2019 Hurricane Season - - -

- North swell

By Peter Allen <stilettocruises at yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2020 23:50:27 +0000 (UTC)

Went for a quick drive at dusk and the swell has started small as it may be.We 
shall see what the morning brings ,my equipment has been put up in the marina 
so no worries on my end.

- TS Karen seen from Barbados

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2019 13:43:27 -0400

Good afternoon to all,

Winds here have become stronger and gustier. The Ocean looks pretty rough.

Attached photo shows TS Karen (or parts of it) as seen from the Southern tip of Barbados at 12:53.

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Yesterday evening

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2019 10:31:06 -0400

Good morning everyone,

First of all good luck to everyone in the path of TS Karen!

Today I just want to share some photos which have taken yesterday evening between 18:05 and 18:10. This was a "different" kind of sunset. The last photo is from this morning 9:00 o'clock.

Enjoy!

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Pretty shabby forecasting

By Peter Allen <stilettocruises at yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2019 10:03:44 +0000 (UTC)

Last i saw of this tropical wave  before bed was a NOAA aircraft went in and 
found no organized circulation,so off to bed i went snoring like a bull only to 
awake this morning 4am saying to myself sounds a bit much to be flying a kite 
out there, hummm is that sheet metal flapping my neighbours fence or could it 
be my roof.Low and behold i'm in tropical storm Karen.I've been watching this 
weather the whole week and put my boats up in safe harbour Friday.I hope all 
the local fisherman and boating fraternity who remained on moorings are all 
good this morning.I'll have a look at our weather station later which is 
located up in the east,i'm on the south coast. Peter

- Invest 99L

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2019 17:39:14 -0400

Good afternoon everyone,

In the morning around 10am we had a good shower and more than normal wind. I thought that was the beginning of the "action", but that was not so, just a normal shower. About half an hour later, through to about 3pm blue skies and breezy winds, no rain. After that it became increasingly cloudy to entirely overcast sky. Before the full overcast I observed that higher clouds were moving significantly faster towards the West than lower level clouds. Now it's completely overcast since about 3:30 or 4pm. Winds are getting stronger along with increasing shower activity. It is also getting cooler. My thermometer says 28.4 °C as I am writing. Something is definitely coming. More later...

Take care.

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Hurricane Hunter NOAA49

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2019 03:32:40 -0400

Good morning to all,

Another flight of Hurricane Hunter NOAA49 (Reg#.:N49RF). Obviously going for 99L first, but let it go because it is still too far away (I think, no proof though), considering the other tasks they had to deal which were more important. Jerry was next and then the wave near Hispaniola and then back to Jerry again. That was a 7h25m mission! You can follow it here, if you like.

Also, 2 pictures attached.

1. The approach of N49RF, taken 20 seconds before touch down back at BGI. Sorry, for the bad quality!

2. The entire route of the N49RF mission.

This weekend doesn't seem to be the best time for having a picnic or a lime on the beach, down here in BIM, thanks to 99L. However, we'll see...

We do need lots of rain in Barbados, but gradually given, please... and we would appreciate it a lot! I guess, that wish is going for all of the Eastern Caribbean islands, from "down under" up to the North... doesn't it.

That's it for tonight from here, just keep watching the conveyor belt of potential storms to come from Africa as Gert and Dave have repeatedly pointed out...

Good night and luck to all!

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Invest 99L

By Peter Allen <stilettocruises at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2019 22:07:13 +0000 (UTC)

Ahhh,the subject matter talked about in my previous note is suddenly Invest 99L 
this afternoon,forecasted to come through the Southern Windwards this 
weekend.Wind Guru has been on to this for days now without dropping the wind 
speed intensity.NHC has had nothing much to say until today giving it a medium 
40% chance,i guess they were buisy looking at the bigger stuff.

- Incoming wave

By Peter Allen <stilettocruises at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2019 12:21:49 +0000 (UTC)

Not much mention of this incoming tropical wave  at 47W south of 15N.NHC has it 
with a 30% chance looks like some needed rain, but what catches my eye is 
trusted windguru with 35+ knots of wind best part of the day Sunday,thats 
almost gale force wind.Boat owners should pay attention to this system 
especially boats on a mooring buoy.

- Interesting Flight

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 12:48:38 -0400

Good afternoon to all,

since I woke up at about 7am this morning it has been raining almost constantly with only a few short breaks in between. The rain was falling moderately for most of the time, but with a few intense downpours here and then. Some thunder in the distance. The rain stopped falling around midday.

At 11am I saw a NOAA Jet, a Gulfstream IV (reg.: N49RF), flying into the airport of Barbados (BGI). It was obviously on a mission to examine the weather around us. The flight route was quite interesting! See more "https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n49rf#221f37eb" . I hope that this link is working for you. If it does, scroll down the page and click the play button. Go and enjoy a flight with the hurricane hunters!

Attached are 2 photos. The first was taken at 8:30am, the second at 10:16am, both looking South.

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- 94L

By Peter Allen <stilettocruises at yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 2019 18:44:20 +0000 (UTC)

Remind Chris in Grenada not to wish for too much rain as the models for 94L 
have it diving south of Barbados now ,this system started at 15+ degrees North 
or higher.Bear in mind that is a similar track that hurricane Janet took in 
1955 when it clobber'd us both.

- H5 Dorian - disbelief

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2019 01:37:11 -0400

Good morning to all,

I am following H5 Dorian very closely... and I am wondering if I am the only person in disbelief? Dorian is now stationary for more than 40 (in words: FORTY) hours!!! This is the period of time the people in Grand Bahama had to endure a Cat 5 pounding!!!

This is simply going BEYOND my imagination!!! Am I the only one, who is unable to picture what this must feel like being on GROUND ZERO? This is just NATURAL TERROR!!!

I feel so terribly sorry for the Bahamians, I am unable to find words of comfort...

Sorry, but I had to vent this!

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Fwd: FW: Tropical Storm Dorian

By Gert van Dijken <gert at vandijken.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 15:31:13 -0700

From: Thunder Storm [mailto:thirteendegreesnorth at gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2019 1:46 PM

Tropical Storm Dorian passed almost directly over Barbados last night with hardly much fanfare.

What played out in actuality was a lot less dramatic than the at times imposing satellite imagery seemed to promise.

The winds did gust up a bit from time to time but hardly much more than 35mph, maybe 40mph at the most.

We had a bit of rain off and on, but there was no deluge of heavy showers nor any intense bouts of thunderstorm activity.

Dorian has done well to mostly maintain an impressive satellite signature, but was really never as well organized as it appeared to be.

Everytime it tries to consolidate itself it gets disrupted and has to try to start all over again.

Wind shear values are on the low side and ocean temperatures are quite warm, but none of these positive factors has had enough punch so far to overcome Dorian’s biggest bugbear which is the ever present dry air, which is constantly trying to entrain into the storm, and is having some success. Any thunderstorms that appear to be firing up don’t last too long and results in any strengthening attempts being stifled and suppressed.

The forecast future of Dorian remains a bit uncertain within the models, but as far as it went for Barbados, we never really experienced any significant storm conditions at all.

Incidents of damages were minimal, a couple trees down here and there, one report of minor roof damage, but overall we got through quite well.

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- TS Dorian - summary, during and aftermath

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 16:15:32 -0400

Good afternoon to all,

Other than my morning post yesterday, I have been quiet for the remainder of the day, because I couldn't understand the apparent mismatch between the satellite images and the published information by the NHC. Hence, instead of spreading incorrect information, I preferred to keep quiet.

My observations (times are approximate):

Yesterday

During the day next to nothing has happened, it was just a rainy day with on and off showers, sunny periods in between and a nice breeze with a few gusts every now and then. Nothing out of the order. Beautiful sunset and a double rainbow in the evening.

Today

01:00 am: Winds and rain were significantly picking up for maybe 15-30 minutes, not long. Judging by the sound I doubt they where storm force winds. Can't tell for sure, because I have no weather station. (So far, it only made it to my wish list.)

01:30 am: Lightning and Thunder in the distance joined in. Rain slowed down later on.

01:45 am: My records take a break (me sleeping).

02:00 am: Tropical Storm Warning for Barbados has been discontinued.

05:00 am: Government gave the "All Clear".

05:30 am: PM Mia Mottley addressed the Nation (see 2nd link below).

07:00 am: The Airport (BGI) resumed operation after its "Shutdown" at 12:00 am yesterday.

09:00 am: All is calm here this morning, clouds are moving North beneath an overcast sky, little pockets of light rain every now and then. Nothing spectacular other than the clouds bringing the rain from South straight into my terrace up to the door which is about 10 feet recessed from where the roof ends.

No major damages in Barbados were reported, just a few fallen trees and power outages, and hence, water outages in some areas mainly in the North and East. See here for details: https://www.nationnews.com/ (this link probably only shows the news summary today, therefore I will add a list of links to various reports without further comments).

That was basically it for now. Enjoy the attached photos. The rainbow was so huge, I had to stitch 3 photos together.

Again, many thanks to Gert for explaining the confusion to me, which I encountered yesterday! That was new one to me - One for the books!

May you all have a great day!

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Dorian

By Peter Allen <stilettocruises at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 19:43:33 +0000 (UTC)

Sorry for the late posting.As dorian passed last evening  the peak gust was 
recorded at East Point St Philip was 43 knots -50mph at 8.44pm Monday night 
Sept 26th.Other than a couple trees no major damage on loss of life.I 
personally live on the south coast and am suprized  with these numbers recorded 
on a Davis Weather Wizard,as the storm passed i had my doors and bedroom 
windows open with just blustery conditions light rain and three claps of 
thunder.I have seen worst weather out of a tropical wave.Peter

- Dorian - Barbados update

By Cathy Palmieri Stuart <flyingfish3 at hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 18:43:40 +0000

The National shutdown in Barbados began at 10am yesterday, August 26, 2019. The storm was expected to hit Barbados at 8pm. There were a few squalls in the mid-afternoon with gusty winds and rain but not for more than a few minutes at a time. The winds started picking up around 6pm but again, did not sustain with any real strength for any significant amount of time.

The most significant part of the storm was the spectacular lightning which was frequent and fierce. Throughout the night, gusty winds and brief down pours occurred intermittently.

There were power and/or water outages in some areas but the majority of the island was unaffected. Aside from a few trees down here and there, damage was minimal.

Hoping for similar reports from other islands.

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- Barbados

By Jennifer Pequeneza <sydmouth at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 15:19:15 -0300

There was some thunder a while ago and the sky is quite dark. It is very humid too. Some rain showers earlier this morning. Island given the ok to get back to normal. As written by the other correspondents we were very fortunate that there was no serious damage. The winds were quite strong so quite a few trees and power poles came down taking out power for numerous households. The airport was reopened at 7am but many flights had already been previously cancelled so it is very quiet on the incoming flight path. Light and Power working hard to get power back up and running and also water was out so tankers have been dispatched. Some flooding in low lying areas. Police report no incidents of any kind during the shutdown. The roads still seem very quiet too so I wonder if many people stayed home. I agree also that Mia Motley did a wonderful job in her directions starting Sunday for making sure we were all as safe as we could be right across our island.

- Update

By Donna Tull-Cox <dondonqt at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 13:45:10 -0400

Here in Cane Garden Park St Thomas, we experienced some rain, and a lovely breeze for most of the day yesterday. The sunset was the most spectacular memory from TS Dorian.

Other areas had much more action. Parts of At Philip, Christ Church,St Andrew, St Michael and St John lost power, had some trees down.

The all clear came first for 'operations', then fully a few hours after. Business as usual resumed by 10 AM.

I must say that the island wide preparation was great!

Truly thankful that TS Dorian did not do major damage here.

- Update Barbados

By "Lynn, Ronald Stoute & Sons Ltd." <Lynn at RonStoute.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 13:37:49 -0400

Hi Gert,

It was fairly mild in Barbados I think based on what we were all expecting. Only heavy sustained rainfall in some parts of the island. St. Philip and further east and parts of St.Lucy and St.Thomas from what I’ve read on FB but no major flooding to my knowledge. Very strong squalls of wind at times. St. Philip also had lots of thunder and lightning and electricity was out from 8pm – 5 am.

Affecting us today are some feeder bands – serious driving rain and wind as I type. Worse than what I experienced last night.

I actually live in Ch Ch and was hardly anything. Still the island’s PM, Mia Mottley did an amazing job of making sure we were all ready and kept up to date on any weather bulletins.

Cheers and keep up the good work.

Lynn Hambrick

PROPERTY MANAGER

Tel: (246) 423-6800

Cell: (246_ 230-7397

Lynn at ronstoute.com

www.ronstoute.com

After Dorian

By <survivalinstinct.bb at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 13:24:48 -0400

Hi Gert.

Dorian passed over us with minimal fuss. I live in the south  end of the
island, but not on the coast;  I had little rain, perhaps 20-25 knots of
wind, heard no thunder, saw little lightning, had a good night sleep!.

I have seen reports of a few trees blown over, but nothing on any flooding
or other type of damage.  For me personally, it was a non-event, and I have
not seen reports of anything too startling from anyone else.

It would be nice if they could all be like this.

- Barbados

By Jennifer Pequeneza <sydmouth at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 20:38:37 -0300

Rain and wind banging on my windows from the ESE for about 30 minutes now. Storm carib satellite showing Barbados almost in the middle of the first red blob.

- Fwd: Barbados

By Jennifer Pequeneza <sydmouth at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 09:02:26 -0300

At 7.30am our Prime minister Mia Motley has just advised that the island shut down will now be at 10am instead of 12 noon due to large feeder bands of rain that is moving in ahead of the storm. She wants everyone to get home safely. The only places working this morning are the essential services in supermarkets, pharmacies, banks, etc. They will be closing at 10 am. Barbados is expecting the storm to pass directly over or very near to our island. Rain starting around 12 noon. The centre of the storm this evening. Stay safe everyone. Remember your animals, they need to be safe too.

- TS Dorian knocking at the door

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 06:43:15 -0400

Good morning to all.

at 4:30am a strong shower from one of the outer bands woke me up. It lasted maybe 5-10 minutes. After the rain stopped JetBlue flight B6386 took off and as I am writing I heard Caribbean Airlines flight BW458 (I think) taking off at 6:00am and just now Liat flight LI374 took off in Westerly direction. Saying, the Airport (BGI) is obviously still open.

These few miles Dorian is forecast to pass South of Barbados don't make a real difference, neither for Barbados nor for the others in its path. Storm force winds are reaching 45 miles (75 km) from the centre (see image).

The bets are open if it might well be a hurricane on arrival, even for Barbados. Memories of "Tomas" in 2010 are flaring up. The eye was passing over us back then. Tomas was also forecast to path South of us as a TS and suddenly it was a direct hit as a cat1 hurricane!

This is not the time to be complacent!

Good luck to all!

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- TS Dorian, lil dip to the South

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2019 14:58:08 -0400

Good afternoon,

Dorian made an unexpected dip to the South, just not enough to keep the South of Barbados clear of storm force winds! But the forecasts are expecting are more northerly change of its movement, which would bring Barbados again into the cross hairs.

Its getting exciting!

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- TS Dorian, direct hit for Barbados!

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2019 07:35:08 -0400

Good morning to all,

As it looks at this time TS Dorian has shifted it's path a bit more South since yesterday. This will bring Barbados in its cross hairs! At this time it looks like a direct hit for Barbados and later for St. Lucia.

I guess, it is time now to clean up and secure your premises!

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Correction

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 11:29:07 -0400

Sorry, I thought the filenames in my previous post would be displayed, but they are not. The photos have taken at 10:20am [AST].

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- "Black Sunday"

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 11:02:27 -0400

Hello to all,

the first dribbles of 96L are coming. The sky looks more dramatic than it really is. Currently, light showers falling, low wind blowing. However, the darkness in the photos attached is real.

The beginning of each file name indicates date and time of exposure [AST].

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- Barbados getting a good quantity of rain

By Jurgen Starck <weather at turtle48.de>
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 21:14:31 -0400

Hi to all,

todays day was one, actually the first one, to qualify Barbados as a "Rainy Season Club Member". We had plenty of rain here on and off. Strong and short, moderate and long. Some of everything. No thunderstorms as yet, eventhough forcasted as a possibility. Just now, as I was typing, lightning an thunder stroke about 1 km away from here.

That's it for today.

--
Best regards and stay safe.
Jurgen

Barbados South, near airport (BGI)

- barbados

By Jennifer Pequeneza <sydmouth at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 19:28:17 -0400

After severe drought conditions for many many weeks now, here in Barbados this past week two tropical waves were to pass through. Needless to say I never got one drop of rain. Other parts of the island did. Today, starting this afternoon finally we are having RAIN, with high winds. It is supposed to continue right through until tomorrow evening. I do hope so. The ground needs it. My grass is non existent and all my shrubs are practically dead. The farmers will be so happy with todays' outcome. Even the extra work of 5 rescue dogs traipsing through my house with their muddy paws is today acceptable as long as it keeps raining for the next day or so..

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