July 16, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our Photo of the Day comes from Cathy Chestnut, who found a halo around the sun on a trip to Utila. These halos are not signs of sainthood, they are caused by ice crystals high up in the atmosphere. If you would like to submit a photo, send it to bookmybio@gmail.com with name and location.
We had another round of thunderstorms pass through early this morning. There is reason to believe the next few night may be a little quieter and the weekend a little rainier.

Here is the rainfall from overnight.

The satellite from last night starts just after midnight and shows the storms crossing over our islands. You can see that at the end, around 7 a.m., there are a few popcorn clouds forming east of Guanaja that will give us a very small chance of a morning shower. After that we should be partly cloudy most of the day. Moisture high up in the atmosphere will be a little less than we have had recently, so today through Thursday we will say a 40 percent chance of rain at night and early morning and 20 percent middays and afternoons. Friday into the weekend rain chances go up again.

Wind and Galaxy Wave forecast: We wake up to east winds 10 mph and seas around 2 feet. Winds this afternoon will increase to 15 mph and seas to 2-3 feet. Tomorrow looks like a fairly calm day, with east winds 5-10 mph and seas closer to 1 foot. Starting Thursday our winds should get a little higher, around 12-17 mph and seas 2-3 feet.

Low tide is 11:20 a.m. Have a great Tuesday!

July 15, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from Melissa Guzman on the dock of the Salty Dawg/Serve Coffee in Oakridge. The east end got light rain last night but the west end got a downpour, with over an inch in West Bay. The week ahead looks fairly calm with scattered showers.

Here are the overnight rainfall totals. The farther west you go, to wetter you got.

There is a thundershower northwest of Roatan and a few popcorn clouds just east of Guanaja at 7:15. All of these clouds are moving toward the west, so a low chance of a shower for our islands this morning. We will continue to have 30 percent chances of rain middays and afternoons and 50 percent chances overnights and early mornings. Rain chances get better this coming weekend with a tropical wave passing through.

Wind and Galaxy Wave forecast: We start the day with east winds 5-10 mph and seas around 2 feet. Seas will calm a little during the day to around 1 foot. Winds tomorrow will be from the east 10-15 mph and seas 1-2 feet and will stay that way the rest of the week.

Normally I tell you that Ikigai by Robby Molina is open on Mondays, but just a heads up that they will be closed today for maintenance, but they will be ready to serve you the best Asian fusion meal on the island starting tomorrow.

Low tide is 10:30 a.m. Have a great week!

July 14, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day is from Gianni De Santis and shows sunset at Hottest Sparrow and has an awesome towering cumulus cloud on the right. Last night was the west sides turn to get some good rains. The east side and Guanaja missed out. We will continue to have rain chances, especially overnight and in the mornings.

Here are last night’s rain totals. We only show the west end because the east end recorded no rain.

The satellite at 7 a.m. is mostly clear with only a few popcorn clouds around. That means a very small chance of a shower this morning, maybe 20 percent. We will continue to have about a 60 percent chance of rain overnight and in the mornings and 30 percent chances midday into the afternoon.

Wind and Galaxy Wave forecast: Our winds are only 10 mph from the east but our seas are coming from the northeast around 3 feet, so the north side is a little wavier than normal. Tomorrow looks calmer, with east winds 5-10 mph and seas around 2 feet. Starting Monday we go back to 15 mph east winds and 2-3 foot seas, especially south side.

If it is Sunday, that means it is Lobster Day at Ikigai by Robby Molina. It is the best lobster deal on the island, with sides and drink for $18.

Low tide is 10 a.m. Have a great Sunday!

July 12, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from Lisa Marie Morgan in Utila and shows a thunderstorm night before last, but it well illustrates the storm that came through early this morning giving us a nice 4 a.m. light show. We will continue to have good chances of showers, about 30 percent during the day and 60 percent at night through the weekend.

Here are overnight rain totals. Everybody got in on the action, including a new station that seems to be in New Port Royal. It is labeled “Casa-Mar Sea” If anyone knows who owns this station, I would love to get in touch.

We wake up to east winds 12 mph and seas 2-3 feet south side. Winds and seas will stay around there today and get even calmer tomorrow with east winds 7-12 mph and seas 1-2 feet south side. Monday and the early part of next week we will have east winds 5-10 mph and seas right around 1 foot, so great times to get on the sea.

If you are a cruiser checking out the Roatan forecast, this will be an awesome weather week to take an excursion with Jolly Roger Roatan. Most rain showers will be early in the morning and any daytime showers will pass quickly and give you plenty of time in the water.

Lowest tide is 9 a.m Have a great weekend!

July 12, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day is from Doug Hubatsch and shows a gorgeous sunset between Palmetto Bay and Crawfish Rock. This morning we have fewer showers around than we did yesterday, but those few have given West Bay a little rain. Rain chances will continue, especially for Sunday night into Monday.

On satellite you can see clouds that have moved over West Bay moving out to sea, but to our east at 7 a.m. you can see a storm cloud that looks like it is about to cross the western part of the island. We will keep a small chance of rain through the morning hours, but from about 10 a.m. into the afternoon we should be partly cloudy with east winds 10-15 mph and seas 3 feet south side.
We will continue to have overnight and morning chances of rain tonight and tomorrow, but I think the chance will be a little higher Sunday night into Monday and rain may linger a little longer on Monday.
Winds tomorrow will be similar to today, but will be a bit calmer Sunday with east winds 7-12 mph and seas around 2 feet south side. Monday looks quite calm with east winds 5-10 mph and seas 1 foot.

A calmer weekend like this one calls out for a beach barbecue and there is absolutely one place on the island to get the meat for the barbecue — well, OK, two places, but that’s only because Carniceria Rosita has two locations, one in French Harbour and one in Coxen Hole.

Tides continue to be mild. Have a great Friday!

July 11, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our Photo of the Day comes from Ryan Sarge and shows Capt. Wagner feeding the pelican Capt. Hubert. Evidently Hubert has learned that the ticket to free food is entertaining the tourists on Utila. Utila is one of the few places that has stayed mostly dry this morning. The rest of us have had a nice thundershower, making at least three mornings in a row of rain for many of us.

On satellite we can see the storm moving from the coast, over the islands and to the north. It looks like it may move away from us in the 7 o’clock hour. After that we should have partly cloudy skies. We will continue to have these chances at morning showers until Sunday evening into Monday when a wave of tropical moisture will give us better chances for afternoon rains as well.

Guanaja also missed out on the fun this morning, but they got over 2 inches of rain yesterday.

Wind and Galaxy Wave forecast: We awake to east winds 10-15 mph and seas 3 feet south side. Winds and seas will stay around that speed through Saturday. Sunday and Monday are looking a little calmer.

Mitch Cummins will be at the Roatan Brewery Craft Market this Sunday. If you have any specific Roatan Pets needs for your canine, shoot him a message on Facebook or at +504 9801-7828.

Tides continue to be mild. Have a great Thursday!

July 10, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our Photo of the Day comes from Joe Burne and is taken from Oakridge, looking out toward Pandy Town and Oakridge Cay. This morning we are dealing with a few showers especially on the east side that have brought an inch and a quarter of rain to Guanaja and about a tenth of an inch for Oakridge.

You can see a lot of rain to our east this morning. This satellite at 6:45 a.m. looks a lot like yesterday’s. The rains stuck around a little longer than usual before clearing out for the afternoon yesterday. We’ll see how long these can stick around this morning and if they can give us more morning rains but, again, we should clear out for the afternoon.

You may wonder why July gets wetter when March and April are so dry. Part of the reason is the Bermuda High, which you can clearly see in this forecast map of the Canadian model. The high pressure system creates the clockwise movement in the Atlantic off the US East Coast, roughly over the island of Bermuda and pushes moisture on its south side in a westward motion toward us. This doesn’t mean rain every day, but it keep the moisture coming and gives us a 30-40 percent chance of rain each morning.

Wind and Galaxy Wave forecast: We will continue to have east winds around 15-20 mph and seas 3-4 feet overnight and in the early mornings and 2-3 feet midday into the afternoon. These winds should continue until Monday. Much of next week looks a good bit calmer than this week.

Tides continue to be moderate. Have a great Wednesday!

July 9, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Today’s Photo of the Day comes from Brandi Conway and was taken from Infinity Bay. It shows cumulus clouds on the horizon at sunset. We had some morning cumulus clouds today bringing east side rains around 4 a.m. Those clouds should clear out and we should be mostly sunny and windy for the afternoon.

On the satellite from 4:30 to 6:30 a.m. you can see the rain clouds passing over the islands. You will also notice that the area around us was mostly clear, so we were quite fortunate.

Here’s the rainfall map. This will be the pattern this week. If we are fortunate we will get a morning shower, otherwise we will be partly cloudy to mostly sunny.

The recent rains have been beneficial for sea temperature. Our one working temperature buoy is on the north side near Big Bight and is now down to 29.1 degrees Celsius (84.4F). It is just over our normal hottest water temperature, but a full degree Celsius below where we were June 14 at 30.4C (86.7F). You will remember that last year we made it to 90 degree water and that was very bad for coral bleaching. We are now under the bleaching threshold. Let’s hope we stay there. Yesterday at the airport we only made it to 87F (30.5C) and even the heat index was under 100F (37.8C). If we can keep these morning showers around, it will keep our temps from getting too unbearable.

Yesterday we had a visitor on Jonesville Point, a macaw that had gotten away from its owner. Sherri Visker and Roatan Operation Animal Rescue were very helpful in knowing what to do. I don’t know where I would turn if they weren’t on the island. It’s a good reminder to reach out with support and a great way to support them is to buy Roatan Pets food, because 10 percent of their proceeds goes to ROAR.

High and low tides should be quite moderate today. Have a great Tuesday!

July 8, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our Photo of the Day comes from Claire Staffa and a spectacular Luna Beach sunset. A couple of things surprised me yesterday. The Storm Behind Beryl completely fell apart and we didn’t get evening rains and the easterly trade winds returned yesterday afternoon. Those winds will last through the week and we do have some storms nearing Guanaja at 7 a.m.

On satellite we can see a complex of storms nearing Guanaja at 7 a.m. The Garcias on the south side of the big island of Guanaja have gotten .07 of an inch. These storms will give us some rain chances this morning, after which we should have partly cloudy skies. The rest of the week we will have about a 30 percent chance of rain each day, mostly in the mornings.

Wind and Galaxy Wave forecast: We awake to 20 mph winds and 4 foot seas on the south side of the east Roatan. Utila is calm this morning, but even Utila will get trade winds later today. Most of this week we will have east winds 15-25 mph and seas 3-4 feet south side.

Our Photo of the Month of July will win a roundtrip on Galaxy Wave to Guanaja. If you want to visit Guanaja for a weekend, now is the time to start planning. I think it is sad so many Roatanians have never been to our easternmost island. You owe it to yourself to visit an island that still retains a little more of the pre-tourist flavor of the Bay Islands.

Low tide is 4:30 p.m. Keep the folks in Houston dealing with Beryl in your thoughts and prayers. Have a great week!

Rainfall for June 2024

In all the excitement over Hurricane Beryl I almost forgot to post rainfall for next month. Thanks to Trish Symons for the reminder. Consistency is important in recording rainfall, so I’m continuing to use the rainfall total in Sandy Bay, though some other locations got more rain toward the end of June. We’re officially recording .94 of an inch, continuing the drought that plagued us with less than two inches through four months. Locations on the east end generally got 2-3 inches of rain.

We’re already doing better in July with over 2 inches recorded this week. July is typically our wettest month outside of rainy season and, while we don’t have big storms on the horizon, persistent chances of scattered showers remain in the forecast, so I am hopeful we will get over 5 inches this month.