Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from Phil Sikora and is taken from Carib Bight just below Juticalpa here on the east side. I chose it because it shows the mountains of the mainland in the background. You need a clear day to see the mainland and in my experience I would say we can see it clearly about 40 percent of the time. As you look southwest from the east side and due south from the west side, you see the mountains of Nombre de Dios National Park (what a great name for a park.)

Rainfall forecast: Today will be sunny and dry. The map I posted here is for tomorrow morning, and it shows a cold front that brought tornados to the panhandle of Florida today moving out to sea. But as you can see, the tail end near our islands is very weak, so our chance of rain is very low, but not zero. I’ll say we’ll see more clouds tomorrow morning and about a 20 percent chance of catching a shower. After that it is dry until Sunday when another weak cold front comes near. After that it is dry until Wednesday, when we get a better chance of a good cold front bringing rain.

Wind and wave forecast: We start the day with east/southeast winds 15-20 mph and seas 3-4 feet. As the day goes on winds will calm to 10-15 mph and seas 2-3 feet. Tomorrow winds turn to the west around 10 mph but seas will still be from the east 2-3 feet, especially for Roatan and Guanaja. Utila may see seas turn a bit to the northwest, but should only be 2 feet in the morning and 1 foot in the evening. Thursday starts out quite calm, but Thursday night into the weekend, winds and seas pick up from the east.

We’ve seen a good response to Roatan Pets. It’s a great product and don’t forget that 10 percent of proceeds goes to rescuing the needy pets on the island. Contact Mitch Cummings for more info at +504 9801-7828 on Whatsapp.

Low tide at 1:30 a.m. will be very low. Have a great Tuesday!

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from James Thomas and was taken from Plaza Mar looking south toward the bay. James is the owner of Carniceria Rosita and this weekend for the first time I made hamburgers using Rosita’s beef and they were amazing, without all the filler you get in grocery store ground beef. This was 100 percent cow and it was delicious. Our weather will be delicious too.

On satellite at 7:30 a.m. we can see a couple of popcorn clouds midisland and on Guanaja that might bring a short shower or two this morning, but other than that we should be sunny and windy today.

Speaking of small chances of rain Mike Strine’s meter in Camp Bay picked up .07 of an inch around 4 a.m.

Our GFS forecast model shows a series of cold fronts trying to make it this far south and failing. Each of these will give us small chances of rain. The first one comes Wednesday, about a 30 percent chance of rain. The next comes Sunday with about the same chance. Finally the forecast for a week from Wednesday is that a cold front finally brings us good rain, but that’s a long way off. In between those days we should be dry and sunny.

We start the day with 20 mph east winds and 3 foot seas. Those winds and seas will build throughout the day, 25 mph and 4 foot by afternoon, 25-30 mph and 5-6 tonight. Tomorrow winds will get calmer through the day, 17 mph east winds and 3-4 foot seas in the morning to 12 mph east winds and 2-3 foot seas afternoon. Wednesday winds turn to the west as our weak cold front tries to come with west winds 15 mph and seas around 2 feet, but coming from various directions because the swell will still be from the east. Thursday into the weekend winds turn back to the east.

Low tides are 2:15 p.m. and 2:15 a.m. Have a great week.

BTW I will be heading to Big Bight and First Bight today with calendar deliveries. If I haven’t gotten in touch with you let me know and we will arrange a delivery or pickup. If you’re still interested in a calendar, please message me.

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from Shedna Woods and was taken at Camp Bay Beach at sunset. We will have many more of these gorgeous sunrises and sunsets because we only have a few clouds here and there and bright sunshine. We will have sunny skies and no rain today. Tomorrow a cold front to our north will push east winds at us. I’ll say maybe a 10 percent chance that someone sees a shower tomorrow but it is unlikely. Tuesday is dry and Wednesday we will have a 20 percent chance of a shower with a very weak cold front turning our winds to the west.

This morning we have southeast winds on the far east side of the island and Guanaja at 15 mph, lighter winds for west Roatan and light west winds for Utila. Those winds will calm during the day as our seas go from 3 feet on the south side to 2 feet. This evening and tomorrow we will get windier from the east with winds tomorrow 17-22 mph and 20-28 mph tomorrow night. Things calm down on Tuesday before we get mild west winds on Wednesday with a very weak cold front.

We want to welcome the weather station put up by Paiz Sloane on Guanaja which now gives us TWO weather stations on that island. We can’t wait to include them in our rain totals … when we get some rain.

Don’t forget, today is the day to chow down on some of the best lobster on the island during the Sunday Lobster Special at Ikigai by Robby Molina in French Harbour.

We have a very low tide at midnight tonight. Have a great Sunday!

Rainfall for December and for 2023: We’re putting West End’s 18.09 inches in the record book for December. That number was pretty typical across the Big Island and for Utila as well. That is well above our December average of 12.3 inches. Incredibly, we are above average for the year. That’s incredible because from January through September we had gotten about half our normal rainfall. But October through December made up for lost ground.

As we look forward to January, we see the beginning of the end of the rainy season. January averages 11 inches and the end of the month is typically drier than the beginning. But based on the current forecast the beginning of January looks fairly dry, so odds are good for a below average January rainfall.