January 7, 2024

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!

January 6, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day shows the sun setting over a cruise ship at Sandy Bay and is sent to us by James Oden. We have finally gotten our full allotment of Roatan Weather Calendars so if you ordered one and haven’t received it please message or Whatsapp me. If you haven’t ordered one and want one, please do the same. They are also available now at Hangover Hut, open daily from noon to 9 p.m. Thanks for your patience.

We wake up to windy conditions, with winds from the west/southwest at 20 mph on the east side of the island, 15 mph on the west side of the island and 5 mph on Utila. We will see winds calming today, but will continue to see winds higher on the east side of the Big Island and Utila and calmer on the west side and VERY calm in Utila. By evening seas will calm to 2-3 feet for the big island and 1 foot for Utila. Winds and seas continue to come from the east.

The difference between winds east to west will be especially big tomorrow morning. In this map you can see Guanaja and the east end getting brisk winds and the west end getting fairly calm conditions and Utila getting light winds from the west. East winds increase a bit Monday morning and get strong Monday evening into Tuesday morning at 25 mph and seas 4-5 feet before calming again during the day on Tuesday.

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

January 5, 2023

Thanks so much to Annette Huskin for this great shot from Brick Point Guanaja. I wanted to highlight Guanaja because I’ve known for awhile that we would be getting our first weather station on that island in 2024. But Paiz Sloane in Mangrove Bight wasn’t quite ready to go online. So imagine my surprise when I saw a completely different weather station show up on Wunderground. We are thrilled to welcome not one but TWO weather stations to Guanaja. I’ve been waiting for this five years and it happens in the SAME WEEK. Thanks so much Oscar and Lisa Garcia!

This map shows the scattered showers we had yesterday. We will be mostly clear, with very little chance of any rain today through Tuesday. Wednesday a weak norther will bring us a small chance of rain.

The bigger story is the return of east winds. Today we have east winds 15 mph bringing 2 foot seas, mostly on the south side. Those winds will increase this afternoon to 20 mph and 3 feet and 25 mph and 4-5 feet overnight. Tomorrow morning we will start the day windy and wavy from the east, but those winds and waves will get calmer as the day goes along, down to 10 mph and 2 feet by afternoon. Sunday looks fairly calm at 5-10 mph and 2 feet. Utila will be quite calm this weekend at 1 foot and light and variable winds. Things get windy from the east Sunday night into Monday.

On a personal note I’d like to give a shoutout to the staff at Centro Medico Ramos in Las Fuertes and Dr. Noe Ramos in particular. My family has used him as our personal doctor and this past weekend I saw him and his staff go above and beyond the call of duty for a friend. They are not a sponsor, but I just had to mention them. Dr. Ramos speaks perfect English and is a great doc for any of our island visitors who have a medical need during their stay!

Lowest tide is 11 p.m. Have a great Friday!

January 4, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from long-time supporter Claire Staffa and is a beautiful shot of sunrise from Lighthouse Estates on the south shore of West Bay. Today is a day we will see a few more clouds and a scattered shower here or there before we get dry again for the weekend.

After a very cool morning yesterday, we are back to normal lows for this time of year in the mid 70s (24C). Yesterday our highs were mostly 82-84 (28-29C). We have very mild winds but what winds we’ve had are from the east and southeast and that is bringing the warmer weather back.

Most of us have been dry this morning but Utila has picked up a few showers and First Bight got a quick heavy rain around 6 a.m. that we can see on satellite.

Here is the cloud at mid-island that brought that half inch to First Bight. We will keep some of these popcorn clouds around today and with them a chance of a few downpours here and there. After today, things get quite dry again through the weekend into next week.

We start the day with seas around 2 feet from the east/northeast and winds around 5 mph. Today will be a fairly calm day on the seas, with waves 1-2 feet by afternoon. Tonight we start to get windier and tomorrow morning we will have east winds 10-15 mph and seas 2-3 feet and by evening winds driving from the east 20-25 mph and seas 4 feet, maybe touching 5 feet on the south side. Saturday winds calm to 10-15 mph from the east and seas 2-3 feet. Sunday winds look quite calm with seas at 2 feet before the strong east wind comes back Sunday night into Monday.

With less rain in the forecast this next week will be beautiful for a day on the catamaran, and if you are planning your trip or cruise excursion to the island you can do no better than the Jolly Roger. Don’t forget to check them out at https://jollyrogerroatan.com/

We will have a very low tide at 10:10 p.m. Have a great Thursday!

January 3, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day comes from Patti Yelinik and was taken at the end of Kai Linda Way in West Bay at sunset. The big story of the day is that Jonesville got just one degree away from our all-time recorded low temperature on the big island. It reached 66.9F (19.4 C).

Many of us got down around 70 degrees this morning for two reasons. Less cloud cover allowed the earth to cool down more last night than the previous night. Also winds this morning were quite calm (about 5 mph) and that also allows the temp to cool.
But the big news is a recording station in Jonesville got down to 66.9 F (19.4C). This is a fairly new station and I suspect if it had been here in 2020 when we hit our all-time record low of 66F, it would have been lower. I’m going to do a video later where I explain why.

That said, with only partly cloudy skies today, we should get warm fairly quickly, up to around 82-84F (28-29C) quickly. As I always say, it is hard to stay under 80 degrees here when the sun is out.

Little to no chance of rain today. Tomorrow we had been calling for scattered showers, but the models and not very optimistic for rain tomorrow. I’ll say a 20 percent chance tomorrow morning. After that we dry up again through the weekend with maybe a 20 percent chance Sunday morning.

We start the day quite calm at about 5 mph and seas around 3 feet. Winds should speed up this afternoon to 10-15 mph and seas 2-3 feet from the northeast. Tomorrow things look even calmer, with similar winds, but seas 1-2 feet. Friday things get windier and winds and seas turn to the east. Winds Friday evening will be 20-25 mph and seas around 5 feet on the southside. Winds and seas get calmer for the weekend, around 2-3 feet before getting windier on Monday.

You may have noticed that we picked up a new sponsor. Roatan Pets makes all-natural pet food (mostly dog food right now) with local ingredients made in their production facility in French Harbour. Mitch Cummings started this business with a focus on healthy pet food that you can’t get from the big factories. And he donates 10 percent of all sales to Roatan Operation Animal Rescue (ROAR). I think we can all agree that the animals of Roatan need all the help they can get. For more info contact him on Whatsapp at 9801-7828.

High and low tides are still running quite low. Have a great Wednesday!

Rainfall for December and 2024

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.

January 1, 2024

Good morning Bay Islands. Our first photo of the day for 2024 is our last photo from Saturday’s storm. Thanks to Kelly Kosmin for sharing this monster waves from West End. Things are calmer now, though still choppy. We are in for some much drier weather in the week ahead.

Low temperatures were not as cool as yesterday morning. Most of us saw a low of 71 (21.7C). We will keep a northeast breeze 12-17 mph today and tomorrow giving us seas at 4-5 feet. Seas will be from the northeast and because our island runs southwest to northeast, that will keep us kind of choppy on both sides. Winds turn to the east on Wednesday, get calm on Thursday and get windy on Friday from the east.

We picked up some light rainfall early this morning.

We have some clouds around that will give us a chance of rain this morning. This is actually the best chance of rain until Friday. Starting this afternoon and running through tomorrow and Wednesday rain chances are very low. Thursday we’ll have some scattered showers and Friday and Saturday look dry.

Here is what January looks like on our new Roatan Weather calendar. Average high is 82 (27.7C) and average low is 73 (23C) and average rainfall is 11 inches. Several of you have already reserved your copy and I’ll be in touch about delivery. They should be printed tomorrow. If you want to reserve yours, please message me or if you’re in the States or Canada go to http://tinyurl.com/roatanweather

High tides continue to be quite low. Low tides are 7:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m.

In my video forecast I talk about why we’re going to get some strong east winds end of this week into next week and why we can look for drier weather. Also see a really big wave at West End from Saturday’s storm. Have a great week and a great 2024!

December 31, 2023

Good morning Bay Islands. Our video of the day comes from Megan Mitchell and shows the waves pounding Sandy Bay Beach. My peak wind gust on Jonesville Point was 46 mph and Ron Ohm picked up 48 mph. Waves reached 8 1/2 feet but I’m sure they were probably 9-10 feet at some point (around 3 meters). Some voiced concern about beach erosion.

These temperatures are close to our lows for the morning. Almost everyone got to 68 or 69 degrees, just two degrees from our all-time recorded low of 66 in 2020. We will continue to be cool for the next couple of days.

Rainfall is getting lighter this morning after a day of steady rain yesterday. Rainfall totals generally get higher as you go further southwest, as is typical with a norther, where rain is heaviest closer to the mainland.

On satellite you can see that the front has moved to our south. On the back side of the front we will have partly to mostly cloudy skies today with an occasional light shower. Winds will turn from north to northeast at 10-15 mph. Seas are starting out at 5 feet this morning, but should calm to 3-4 feet by evening.

For the first day of 2024, we will have partly cloudy skies, a 40 percent chance of a shower, mostly in the morning, and northwest winds 12-17 mph and seas 3-4 feet.

Tuesday winds start moving from northeast to easterly at 15-20 mph and seas around 4 feet. Rain chances Tuesday through the end of the week will be low. Wednesday and Thursday look calmer for wind and sea. A cold front will stay north of us, pushing strong east winds our way for Friday and Saturday.

Don’t forget to check out today’s lobster special at Ikigai. You can’t beat it!

All our tides have been fairly low, with high tide only 4 or 5 inches above low tide. Have a great last day of 2023 and stay safe on the roads tonight!

December 30, 2023

Good morning Bay Islands. Our photo of the day is a reminder of our last norther, taken at the tip of West Bay by Julie Elpus. This morning we getting 20 mph winds and seas at 5 feet on the north side. Conditions are expected to be worse this afternoon before the get a little better tomorrow.

Here are our rainfall totals, with this morning’s rain in purple and rainfall including yesterday in yellow. The west side has already gotten around 5 inches.

Lots of clouds out there at 9 a.m. This will be quite a cloudy day with steady, sometimes heavy, rain. Another 2 inches is expected.

Winds and seas will be the main concern today. This morning winds will be from the north/northeast at 20 mph and seas 5 feet, but as we get into the afternoon winds will pick up 20-30 mph and seas 7-8 feet. Winds will be from the northeast tomorrow 12-17 mph and seas will be 6 feet in the morning and 5 feet in the afternoon, coming from the northeast. Tomorrow there will be periods of light, chilly rain. Rain chances are much lower Monday and Tuesday, but we still keep a brisk northeast breeze 12-17 mph and seas 4-5 feet. Seas should be down to 3 feet Wednesday and 2 feet Tuesday.

Speaking of chilly, look at these morning lows in Belize. Hopkins on the coast even got down to 68 degrees (20C). We probably won’t get that cool, but look for very cool temperatures tonight and tomorrow night. Folks going out for New Year’s Eve may want to take a jacket.

Low tides are around 5:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. Be careful out there, especially this afternoon!

December 29, 2023

Good morning Bay Islands. Our picture of the day comes from James Oden and shows a waterspout from Nov. 1 off Sandy Bay. Waterspouts are an interesting phenomena. While tornados are almost unheard of in our region of the tropics, waterspouts are fairly common. They form and disappear quickly and create winds generally less than 65 mph, much less than a land tornado. While I’m not forecasting waterspouts, we are in for a windy, rainy couple of days.

Around 3-4 a.m. we got a heavy rain, especially on the west side of the big island.

We’re actually kind of fortunate, because most of the rain has fallen to our north this morning. Today will be a day of off and on showers. Heaviest rain should come tonight and tomorrow morning.

Here is the wind map going from 1 p.m. today through Monday morning. Today we will have north winds 10-15 mph, with wind gusts in squalls. Tomorrow morning winds should be around 15-20 mph but the real gusty winds come in the afternoon when wind gusts 30-35 mph will be coming from the north/northeast. Winds Sunday are back to 17-22 mph a little more from the northeast and Monday 12-17 from the northeast. By Tuesday winds start turning to the east.

Here is the Euro wave map from midday today into Monday afternoon. Waves right now are around 3 feet coming from the north/northeast. They build to 4-5 feet by nightfall, 6 feet tomorrow morning and 8-9 feet tomorrow afternoon on the north side. Sunday they calm to 5-6 feet and Monday 4 feet, coming more from the east/northeast.

Rainfall will be off and on today with cloudy skies. Tomorrow rain will be heavy and long-lasting for much of the day with 2-5 inches expected. Sunday and Monday rain will be light, but chilly when it falls with more peeks of sunshine.

Low tides are 4:50 p.m. and 4:40 a.m. Be careful out there and mostly stay off the seas tomorrow and perhaps Sunday. I often tell people I’m not a boating expert, but 7-8 foot seas don’t sound like fun.