April 2, 2022: Good morning Roatan! Since our weather is pretty boring, I thought I would talk about one thing that is happening in our weather — wind! Sometimes we will give a forecast for 20 mph winds and someone will comment that it seems much calmer where they are. Occasionally we get the opposite, someone who says it seems gustier than the forecast. I am posting the wind forecast for 2 a.m. Tuesday. It’s supposed to be pretty windy, but you will notice that it will be windier on the east side of the island than on the west side. That is because landforms protect against wind, and when we have a southeast wind (the most common kind here) the east side has less protection from the mainland. When wind has nothing but sea to blow over, it can get very windy. Also, if your location is protected by a large hill, you can stay quite calm. Where we lived on Lucy Point, we were protected from the east wind, so it was hardly ever more than 10 mph at our location, unless we were experiencing a west wind. When we give a windy forecast, we give it for unprotected areas, generally near the sea. Official forecasts are usually for wind speeds at a height of 10 meters.

That being said, today looks pretty windy, with east winds 20-25 mph, but tomorrow looks a bit calmer, with east winds 12-17 mph. As always with east winds, they will be calmer on the north and west sides of the island, and closer to the prediction on the south and east ends of the island. Next week looks sunny and windy, with a chance of rain coming next weekend. Have a great weekend.

April 1, 2022: Welcome to April. Things are already getting hot. The airport got up 88 (31C) degrees yesterday and Utila has gotten to 90 (32C) degrees today. Winds have been up, especially on the south side. My new weather station will be on the island Wednesday, so I will be able to get accurate wind speeds on the south side, but the airport got up to 25 mph last night and is registering 15 mph through the middle of the day. Those conditions will continue through the week. The long range forecast still shows rain arriving Saturday evening the 9th. We’ll keep an eye on it.

March 31, 2022: Good morning, Roatan. Abundant sunshine continues. Winds will be from the east/southeast 10-15 through the middle of the day with 3 foot (1 meter) waves and gusty at night 20-25 mph and 5 foot waves (1.6 meters). As we go through the weekend, winds will calm a bit, especially on Sunday when east/northeast winds will be 5-10 mph. Have a great Thursday!

March 30, 2022: Good morning, Roatan! Goodbye rain, hello wind! Daytime winds at 20 mph and nighttime winds to 30 mph with seas at 3 feet (1 meter) during the day and up to 5 feet (1.6 meters) at night. Skies will be partly cloudy today, but should be sunny the rest of the week into the weekend. Next rain chance looks to be around April 9. Have a great Wednesday!

March 29, 2022: Good morning Roatan. The east side is getting a decent shower at 7 a.m. Punta Blanca already has over half an inch for today. Most locations got between half an inch and an inch in the period after 7 a.m. yesterday. The 7 a.m. radar shows what is likely the last wave of rain out of this system. There will be chances of rain, especially through the morning. Clouds should decrease this afternoon and the easterly trade winds return. They will gust to 30 mph overnight creating 5 foot (1.6 meter) seas. That cycle will repeat (15-20 mph winds during the day, 20-30 mph at night) for the next week. Next rain system in the long-range forecast is around April 9. Have a great week!

March 28, 2022: Good morning, Roatan! The area between Sandy Bay and Coral View got 2-3 inches of rain yesterday, while over here on the east side, totals have been right around 1 inch. Rain should start diminishing today and winds should start picking up from the east tonight. The chance of rain will continue through tomorrow morning. After that we dry out for the rest of the week. Have a great week!

March 27, 2022: Good morning, Roatan! Our rain totals the last 24 hours have ranged from a relatively light .18 in Punta Blanca on the east side of the island to almost an inch near Sandy Bay to about 2 inches in West Bay.

The next 24 hours look to be even more rainy, with estimates of rain ranging from 2 inches in the US model to about 4 in the Euro. Winds will continue from the northeast at 12-17 mph and seas at 3 feet especially on the north side. Tomorrow most of the rain should be in the morning, with partly cloudy skies in the afternoon and winds turning to the east at 15-20 mph and seas at 3 feet, but mostly on the south side.

Tuesday we will have a small chance of a morning shower, but after that we turn back to windy and dry conditions for the rest of the week. Have a great Sunday.

March 26, 2022: Good morning Roatan! These are our rain measurements for the last 24 hours as of 6 a.m.

.75 of an inch, Punta Blanca

1.85 Politilly

1.73 Coral View

1.39 Sandy Bay

1.63 Sandy Bay-SOL

1.4 West Bay

1.33 Utila

The computer rain totals have gone up. In the maps you see the predicted rain totals by midday Tuesday, when all of this is supposed to end. The Euro model at the top is predicting about 7 more inches, and the US model at the bottom predicts about 4 inches. In other words we are about to get wetter. Winds today should be from the north/northwest at 12-17 mph and seas at 3 feet (1 meter) especially on the north side.

Rain continues off and on through Monday, when the winds will turn back to the east. Rain tapers off to occasional showers Tuesday morning and finally comes to an end. After that we will be back to stiff east winds and dry conditions for the rest of the week. Have a great, wet weekend!

March 25, 2022: Good morning, Roatan! We’ve already recorded some rain, the most being about a quarter of an inch in Coral View. We are also seeing brisker north winds than we were expecting. They are getting up to 20 mph in some places. Here are two computer models of forecast rain between now and Monday night. The purple represents a forecast of 3+inches of rain and the red 2-3 inches. We should have intermittent rain, sometimes heavy, especially on Sunday, with north winds mostly 10-15 mph. Have a great Friday!

March 23, 2022: Wow! It’s been very windy overnight. The airport, which as far as I can tell is the only southside weather station right now, reported 35 mph winds when they turned off the station for the night last night at 11 p.m. We have one more day and night of windy weather, followed by calm tomorrow and then rain for the weekend.

Today winds will be from the east at 17-22 mph gusting to near 30 mph tonight. Seas right now are around 6 feet (2 meters) but should calm during the day to 4 feet (1.3 meters).

Tomorrow should be much, much calmer than today, with east winds 5-10 mph and seas at 2 feet (.6 meters). Tomorrow should be partly cloudy.

Friday we see a chance of a morning shower and west/southwest winds 7-12 mph.

Saturday is our best chance at rain. Most models give us an inch or two. Winds will be from the west at 7-12 mph and seas at 2 feet.

Sunday we should actually catch a north wind at 10-15 mph and 2 foot seas mostly on the northside. Most of our rain chances Sunday should be in the morning.

Monday there is still a chance of rain and winds turn back to the east at 12-17 mph.

After Tuesday morning things turn dry again for the rest of next week. Have a great Wednesday!