Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo this morning comes from Phil Sikora. I know it looks like one of the suns from a planet on Star Wars, but it is actually our sun over Carib Bight. We start the day with 20 mph east winds and smoke, smoke, smoke. Don’t forget the five most-liked photos on Facebook will compete June 1 for a $50 gift certificate to Hangover Hut.
Let’s start with the satellite, where we see the smoke plume over our entire region of the Caribbean. The edge seems so close, yet so far away. We start the day with 20 mph east/southeast winds and 4 foot seas on the southside. That should calm to 15-20 mph midday, but we are going to get back to 30 mph east winds tonight. Winds will continue over the weekend from the east/southeast, but next week they start to come more directly from the east and even occasionally from the northeast. They will also be slightly calmer. That gives us hope that the smoke will be better next week.
The airport is again closed this morning. The airport was only closed a couple of hours yesterday, but this morning looks a little worse. In any case, chances are good that conditions improve in the afternoon.
I wanted to republish this comment made yesterday by Harry Hewson on Facebook about the situation at the airport: Just a comment about air travel in and out of RTB. RTB is only equipped with a VOR non-precision approach procedure for aircraft to use in bad weather. This is a very old and rudimentary technology that requires 4000m visibility at the airport in order to fly the approach. Current smoke situation has reduced visibility below 1000m at times. If you want to complain about something, campaign to have the Honduras Civil Aeronautic Agency (AHAC) install a certified, modern precision approach (ILS or GPS) for RTB. The smoke will continue to be an annual problem. Giving pilots the tools to deal with it is the solution.
We’ll take a moment to take note of the dust in the air. In all honesty, the dust has taken a back seat to the smoke as our concern. The dust is higher up in the atmosphere and doesn’t have much effect on aviation and health like smoke does, but it does seem to get a little better this weekend before getting a little worse middle of next week.
Let’s take a moment to note that all of our reef in under a heat watch, with temperatures already above their historic maximum of 84 degrees (28.9 C). One more degree celsius and we are in bleaching territory again. I don’t talk much about climate change because I don’t want to start an argument, but things are definitely not getting better when it comes to heat, fires and dust.
With all these flight delays, it makes sense to rely on the Galaxy Wave ferry to get over to the mainland. Those ferries cut right through the smoke and make it to La Ceiba and back right on time.
Lowest tide will be 11:30 a.m. Have a great Friday.
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