Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from Jeff Kittleson and shows a couple definitely enjoying our Roatan sunset. We start the day at a very warm 80 degrees (26.7C). It’s the first time in awhile many of us didn’t even get into the 70s for a low and a sign of the warm weather ahead, though a few clouds may bring a little relief Sunday through Tuesday.

After a couple of calmer days we are back to 20 mph east winds this morning with seas 3 feet on the south side. Those conditions will continue through today and we will have a windy night tonight, with east winds 20-30 mph and seas 4-5 feet on the southside. Things get a bit calmer again Saturday, but something very interesting happens Saturday night into Sunday. In this video Euro wind forecast we can see a very small low pressure system setting up that may give us decent northwest winds Sunday morning. But since our swell (waves coming into our area from winds further away) is still from the east, our waves Sunday and Monday should be pretty calm. Late next week into next weekend looks windy again.

We will be dry today. Tomorrow is the Music Festival for the Angels at Sol y Mar and concertgoers will have clear skies and warm (OK, hot) temperatures. So take plenty of water.

Sunday we will have partly to mostly cloudy skies and a chance of a passing shower, but best rain chances will be Sunday night into Monday morning and then again Monday night into Tuesday morning. Most models only give us a tenth of an inch to a quarter of an inch of rain, but when you get a nice shower, it is always possible someone might get half an inch. Others of us will probably get nothing. Let’s hope for the best.

In our long range forecast we are still looking for a stronger rain system, that now looks like it might come March 20-21.

Don’t forget that this month’s Photo of the Month winner gets $50 in pet food from Roatan Pets. If the winner doesn’t have a pet, the winnings can be donated to Roatan Operation Animal Rescue.

Low tides are 1:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Have a great Friday!

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from Michelle Ross and was taken in West End. You can clearly see the sun’s rays in this photo and those rays have been pretty hot the last couple of days. We may get relief with a few more clouds Sunday through Tuesday. Don’t forget that the five photos with the most likes will compete March 31 for $50 in food from Roatan Pets.

Our high yesterday at the airport was 86 degrees (30C) but what made it really hot was the humidity. Our dewpoint (a measure of how much moisture is in the air) made it up to 81 (27C) giving us heat index (a combination of temperature and humidity) of 106 (41C). Last week our high temperatures were running around 82 degrees (27.7C) and dewpoints around 76 (24.4C) giving us heat indices around 89 (31.7C) That’s a big difference. Looking ahead, we have almost certainly seen an end to cold front passing through, so our only hope is cloud cover. We should get a little more of that Sunday through Tuesday morning, despite the fact that our rain chances those days will be low. Today through Saturday, though, we will continue to be hot and humid.

Our hopes for rain Sunday through Tuesday are looking pretty light, but I still think a few of us will get a shower one of those days. It will be a relief.

We wake up to east winds around 10 mph and seas around 2 feet on the south side. We have one more day of these calm seas before we start getting windy again. Tonight we get east winds 15-20 mph and seas 3 feet on the south side. Tomorrow we will have winds 15-20 mph during the day and seas 3-4 feet and tomorrow night east winds 20-30 mph and seas around 5 feet. Sunday evening to Monday morning is the calmest period in the forecast with light winds and seas at 1 foot.

This will be a great weekend to get away to Guanaja. Galaxy Wave’s new Guanaja ferry makes it possible to get from Roatan to Guanaja. I’ve met a lot of islanders who have lived here their whole life and never visited Guanaja. That’s because there hasn’t been an easy way to get over there. You owe it to yourself to visit at least once. I plan on going for awhile in early May. I can’t wait!

Low tides are 12:40 p.m. and 1 a.m. Have a great Thursday.

Good morning Bay Islands. Today’s photo comes from Kristi Voves in Palmetto Bay and gives us happy rays of sunshine above and below. We will continue to have plenty of sunshine, but tomorrow we will see less wind and Sunday through Tuesday morning we have a chance of rain.

Let’s talk first about wind. Today we will see winds much like yesterday, calming to 7-12 mph from the east through the middle of the day with 2-3 foot seas on the south side. Except for Utila where today will be a quite calm day. We will get back up to 20-25 mph east winds tonight, but tomorrow through Thursday morning winds will be quite calm at 5-10 mph and seas will be 2-3 feet, even through Wednesday night. We get windier Friday and Saturday, but Sunday winds turn to the west, and as islanders know, a west wind has a better chance of rain.

With those west winds will come chances of rain, but we probably won’t get a whole lot of rain. This GFS rain forecast through Tuesday at noon shows an inch to our west, but mostly a quarter to half an inch for our islands. The small rain chances (30-40 percent each day) start Sunday and run through Tuesday morning.

In the extended forecast, we have hopes of an even stronger rain system coming March 17-20. You can see that most of our rich moisture (red color) has been down around the equator. In fact Peru has had some pretty devastating flooding. But we have been in the dry greens and blues. But a cold front will drag some rich wet air down our way, so hopefully we can get an inch or two out of this two weeks from now.

I will be heading down the line to deliver calendars today. If you want one at 200 lemps, send me a message.

Low tides are 11:30 p.m. and 11:30 a.m. Have a great Tuesday!

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from DF Jones in Parrot Tree and shows a few more clouds than we’ve been having recently. We had a very nice midmorning and early afternoon yesterday with winds down to 5 mph and we will have a similar experience today for all the cruisers coming in on the Icon of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship.

I’m very excited to announce a new sponsor for our weather forecasts, Galaxy Wave. In the coming months I’ll be testing out their service to Guanaja and visit that island for the first time. I can’t wait to share a video of my experience.

In honor of our new sponsor, I thought I’d bring out the wave map for the 2 p.m. ferry to La Ceiba, showing a very smooth ride, with 1-2 foot seas between here and Ceiba. The further north and east you go, the choppier the seas get today. But we should have another period of midday calm with winds around 10 mph from the east. We will continue to have windy evenings and overnight around 20-25 mph, with the exception of Wednesday night, which looks to be a calmer night at 15-20 mph.

I’m trying to give us some hope of seeing rain, but in this GFS forecast, the rain that is forecast to come through March 11 looks pretty light and spotty. The GFS is giving us a stronger rain system around March 18, but that is a long way off and forecasts that far out are unreliable. But still there’s hope.

I will be heading down the line tomorrow morning to deliver calendars in Sandy Bay. If anyone wants one for 200 lemps, send me a message. They are also still available at La Sirena de Camp Bay, Restaurant & Bar.

Low tides are 10:40 a.m. and 10:40 p.m. Have a great week!

Good morning Bay Islands. This cloud formation that looks like a cruise ship was captured by James Oden back around October 2023. He thought it might be a good way to welcome the largest cruise ship in the world — Icon of the Seas — into port tomorrow. It can hold between 5,600 and 7,600 passengers, so tomorrow is going to be a busy day on the island. They should have decent weather, especially in the middle of the day as the winds die down.

We will start with the wind and wave forecast, since there isn’t much rain to speak of. At 7 a.m. we have 20 mph east winds and seas 4 feet on the south side and 2-3 feet on the north side. Between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. things should get much calmer, with east winds 5-10 mph, but seas on the south side will still be around 3 feet, 2 feet on the north side. Tonight winds get back up to 30 mph and seas to 5 feet on the south side.

Tomorrow looks much like today, so cruisers will have an opportunity for some nice excursions midday.

BTW, our trip to Santa Helena went quite well with Hanford at the wheel. If you need a solid boat and driver, you can do no better than Hanford, whose dock is on the north side in Diamond Rock, just west of Paya Bay.

Our 7 a.m. satellite promises clear skies all day, with may a cloud here or there. This will be the story all week.

If you’re looking for hope that it will rain, look at the forecast map for March 10-11 and you will see the tail end of a cold front bringing some rain for those days. Forecasts a week out are not very good, but we’ll keep an eye on this system and hope it brings us something for my cistern.

Today is Sunday and that can only mean one thing, Lobster Night at Ikigai by Robby Molina. You can’t beat two expertly prepared lobster tails with succulent sides. The special is available from 4-9 p.m. When you arrive, meet Melissa Dixon who will make sure you are satisfied with your experience.

Tides continue to be on the low side. Have a great Sunday!

Good morning Bay Islands. Today’s photo of the day is the Skittle-colored sunset at West Bay from Kelly Kosmin. The longer we go without rain, the more colorful our sunsets get as pollution and particles in the air don’t get cleaned out by rain. So lots of nice sunrises and sunsets are on the way because no significant rain is in the forecast.

Really quick forecast today because I’m hoping to get to Santa Helena today. Seas on the southside are 4-5 feet at 6 a.m. with east winds 20 mph gusting to 30 mph. We should get a bit of relief from the wind as the sun comes up and winds lower to 15-20 mph and seas to around 3 feet. Winds get strong again tonight, but tomorrow during the middle of the day looks much calmer with winds 5-10 mph and seas around 2 feet as you can see in this chart. As we go through the next week we will continue to have strong trade winds in the evenings and overnights, but somewhat calmer conditions middays. Still no rain in the forecast until perhaps March 10-11 when a small disturbance is forecast.

If you are planning your cruise excursion for the next week, don’t forget to check out the Jolly Roger Roatan. Their trips are cruise-certified as safe and 100 percent fun. They will get you back to the boat on time no sweat.

Tides continue to be mild as we enter half moon phase. Have a great weekend!

Rainfall for February 2024: We’re putting 1.46 inches in the record book for February. That is well below our average of 5.21 inches and indicates that we entered dry season early this year. Our rain totals were remarkably similar across the islands, with 1.4 recorded both on Utila and Guanaja. As we look to March, our average rainfall is 5.21 inches, but the forecast for the next two weeks doesn’t look promising for much rain. They always say dry season allows the mangos to grow out nice and sweet. If so, this should be a good year.

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day for the last day of February is the first contestant in the March Photo of the Month contest. Matt Harper took this photo from Rocky Point in Saint Helene looking toward Guanaja. He said normally Guanaja is just a gray outline, but during our dry weather last week he could see the hills and shadows very well. Sadly we will continue to get more haze as we return to normal humid conditions here.

Before I begin the forecast, I want to mention that it seems the kelp monster is back on my beach. Anyone else noticing this?

We had another blustery night of trade winds. I wanted to show you a chart of my wind monitor yesterday. This chart is typical of easterly trade winds. The worst of the winds comes between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.. They calm a bit toward daybreak and are calmest late morning and midday before getting windier again toward late afternoon. This is the pattern we will see through the weekend into next week and also the pattern that will dominate the next two to three months.

We start out with east winds at 20 mph and seas around 4 feet on the southside and 3 feet on the north side. Winds should calm to 15-20 mph from the east by midday before getting up to 20-25 mph this evening. The next few days will not be QUITE as windy as the last couple were. We’ve been getting winds 33-38 mph at night and the next few night should only be 22-28 mph.

The next week looks quite dry. One of the these mornings someone is going to get a light shower out of one of these popcorn clouds, but don’t bet on it.

We want to thank Roatan Pets for sponsoring our Photo of the Month prize for March! A great product support a great cause over at Roatan Operation Animal Rescue.

Low and high tides are quite mild.

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite February photo for Photo of the Month!