Hurricane Season 2007

[Chris]

There are scattered showers near the DR as a result of an upper high between the Cayman islands and Jamaica ... but, this will move off and we will hopefully get a few dry days. The island is wet overall and we need to dry out before the real weather starts. Generally the skies are fair and the winds are light to moderate Easterly trades. Here is what the water vapor image looks like at the time of posting.



Tropical waves are rolling in across all directions of the Atlantic -- the East, mid-Atlantic and the West. The one tropical wave present in the Caribbean is just about past us. The other three Tropical Waves still in Atlantic waters remain weak with almost no associated rain.

Goodbye to Barry and watching for Chantal. As most of you know, I'm supersticious about female hurricane names.

[Chris]

Hot and normal so far for this hurricane season.

We are under fair skies and moderate to strong easterly trade winds.

[Chris]

A quick trip around the country shows high humidity nearly everywhere excepting perhaps Puerto Plata, where we have some dust in the atmosphere.


Las Americas

Wind	from the NE (040 degrees) at 7 MPH (6 KT)
Visibility	greater than 7 mile(s)
Sky conditions	partly cloudy
Weather	Cumulonimbus clouds observed
Temperature	80 F (27 C)
Dew Point	75 F (24 C)
Relative Humidity	83%

La Romana

Wind	from the ESE (120 degrees) at 12 MPH (10 KT)
Visibility	greater than 7 mile(s)
Sky conditions	partly cloudy
Temperature	82 F (28 C)
Dew Point	80 F (27 C)
Relative Humidity	94%

Puerto Plata

Wind	Calm
Visibility	4 mile(s)
Sky conditions	partly cloudy
Weather	Widespread dust
Temperature	82 F (28 C)
Dew Point	73 F (23 C)
Relative Humidity	74%

Punta Cana

Wind	from the E (090 degrees) at 6 MPH (5 KT)
Visibility	greater than 7 mile(s)
Sky conditions	mostly clear
Temperature	82 F (28 C)
Dew Point	77 F (25 C)
Relative Humidity	83%

Santiago

Wind	from the E (100 degrees) at 9 MPH (8 KT)
Visibility	2 mile(s)
Sky conditions	partly cloudy
Weather	Mist
Temperature	80 F (27 C)
Dew Point	77 F (25 C)
Relative Humidity	88%

[Chris]

We're still under clear skies with moderate to fresh Easterly Trade Winds. These winds typically carry patches of low cloud with associated isolated tropical showers. There are some patches of clouds just south of us currently. The upper air is dry and stable and conditions are normal for this time of the year.

A Tropical Wave is approaching Trinidad and Tobago at the moment. So, toward the end of the weekend, as this wave reaches us, we should get more rain. As is usual this time of the year, the tropical waves are rolling in with monotonous regularity.

Enjoy the long lazy days of summer!

[Chris]

Tropical waves .. 4 of them.
In the East Atlantic, another around French Guiana and Suriname, SouthEast Caribbean showing a classic pattern with rain over Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, and another dryish one near Costa Rica.

The Tropical Wave in the South East Caribbean should reach the DR at the end of the weekend/early next week and bring more rain. Up until then, we have moderate to fresh trade winds, dry stable air and generally fair weather with isolated showers and thunderstorms that the wind blows in and common to this time of the year. Even one of these can dump a whole lot of water in a short amount of time. There are some showers in the vicinity of Punta Cana and all of the airports report a little cloudy weather, excepting Santiago where it is clear at the moment.

Tropical Cyclone formation is not expected for the next 48 hours.

[Chris]

Moderate trade winds continue through Sunday and then some showers and thunderstorms associated with the topical wave now raining on the Lesser Antilles will start moving through.

Today we look like this ..

[Chris]

Its easier to see what is happening in our area on the water vapor image today .. If you look carefully, you'll see the little blue dots over the DR showing a high probability of rain in our area.



We have one tropical wave along 72/73 West (the one with the blue, orange and purple spots on the water vapor image). And then a second one along 82/83 West and South of 16 North moving west at around 18 miles per hour.

We have anti-cyclonic wind flow across the DR at present although conditions developing up North/North West of us may change this. With all the weather around, we will get our fair share of tropical showers and isolated strong thunderstorms over the next few days as the 1st wave still has an afterthought influence and the 2nd wave passes us.

A further two tropical waves are making their way towards us across the Atlantic.

Las Americas reports

Wind	from the SSE (160 degrees) at 12 MPH (10 KT)
Visibility	greater than 7 mile(s)
Sky conditions	partly cloudy
Weather	Cumulonimbus clouds observed
Temperature	84 F (29 C)
Dew Point	77 F (25 C)
Relative Humidity	79%

Puerto Plata reports

Wind	from the ESE (110 degrees) at 5 MPH (4 KT)
Visibility	greater than 7 mile(s)
Sky conditions	mostly clear
Temperature	82 F (28 C)
Dew Point	73 F (23 C)
Relative Humidity	74%

Santiago reports

Wind	from the E (100 degrees) at 9 MPH (8 KT)
Visibility	greater than 7 mile(s)
Sky conditions	mostly cloudy
Temperature	78 F (26 C)
Dew Point	77 F (25 C)
Relative Humidity	94%

Punta Cana reports

Wind	from the ESE (120 degrees) at 9 MPH (8 KT)
Visibility	greater than 7 mile(s)
Sky conditions	partly cloudy
Temperature	86 F (30 C)
Heat index	96.8 F (36.0 C)
Dew Point	77 F (25 C)
Relative Humidity	74%

(Look at that heat index!)

[Chris]

From a rather complex weather story, we are under mostly cloudy skies and can expect isolated moderate showers today still. It looks like there are a few clear days on the horizon after this cloud cover dissipates. All the tropical waves in the Caribbean are now past us and the next two are still making their way to us across the Atlantic.

[Chris]

The overall weather picture is still complex but for us, broken multi-layered clouds. There are some light showers in the Punta Cana Area currently.

The Northwestern Caribbean sea has a large area of cloudiness and showers with a broad area of low pressure. Besides bringing us a little more rain than usual around the fringes of this, (which is welcome to cool things down) it should not affect us.

The general pattern is clear skies in the mornings, then the clouds roll in, as the earth cools off toward the evening, we get our usual tropical showers / isolated thunderstorms late afternoon and sometimes into the evening.

It is hot and humid - the airports report temperatures between 97.5F and 99.5F - around 36/37C.

[Chris]

We are under mostly clear skies, excepting on the South Coast in patches, where conditions are mostly cloudy. Conditions should remain like this for a few days as there are no tropical waves close to heading our way right at present. There seems to be widespread African dust over the coastal regions. The picture for today ..