Well well well, following an unexpectedly hot and sunny month of July, it would seem that the rainy “Hurricane Season” has now arrived to the Dominican Republic – in the form of a Tropical Wave which is now hovering over us with a “low pressure system”, predicted to become a Tropical Cyclone (most likely a Tropical Depression) Tropical Depression, predicted to become Tropical Storm Ernesto heading our way. So given that it is currently pouring with rain – we thought now would be a good time to update you on the not-so-lovely weather situation……
The Tropical Wave over the Dominican Republic and Casa de Campo
A Tropical Wave sounds (to me anyway) a lot like a heat wave, but sadly the meaning is very different – a Tropical Wave (as you may have noticed) brings lots of rain and rather chilly weather (well significantly less warm than we are used to anyway). The good news is however that this Tropical Wave is moving (rather slowly) North-West and the intensity of the rain is expected to diminish by tomorrow – but there is still a pretty high (60%) chance of rain everyday between now and Sunday.
UPDATE: The “low pressure system” has now become a Tropical Depression, which IS now expected to form into Tropical Storm Ernesto by Friday. Tropical Storm Ernesto is then predicted to pass to the South of the Dominican Republic between Saturday and Sunday and may even form into a category 1 hurricane by Monday as it passes below Cuba. Of course – this is just the latest update, so when we find out more we’ll let you know!
A low pressure system which is currently moving westward in the direction of the Windward and Leeward Islands has (according to weather.com) the potential to form into a Tropical Cyclone. This system is expected to arrive at the Windward and Leeward Islands on Friday, from where it is predicted to continue moving West / North West potentially affecting the Dominican Republic by this Sunday – as a Tropical Depression (lots of rain, not much wind) or Tropical Storm Ernesto (lots and lots of rain and wind).
KEEP INFORMED!
Whilst we at Casa de Campo Living will do our best to keep you informed, we recommend the following for keeping extra-informed:
• www.nhc.noaa.gov – The National Hurricane Centre
• www.weather.com – The Weather Channel
• ONAMET.gov.do – the Dominican Republic’s official weather warning people (this one is in Spanish)
• Twitter: We recommend following NHC_Atlantic – for regular tweets on hurricanes, tropical storms etc
Hurricane Season 2012
This year “Hurricane Season” is predicted to be “less active” than usual – with 11 named storms of which 6 are expected to develop into hurricanes and 2 into major hurricanes (category 3 or higher), which is in general pretty good news and will hopefully mean less rain, but you never know…..click here to read more about the Hurricane Season 2012 forecast.
Spanish
