Hurricane Season in USVI
 

I'm planning a birthday trip to USVI in late September which I know is hurricane season. Am I making a mistake?? Help!!

We're going in August and a friend of mine just called last night to say that hurricane season is supposed to be alittle worse than normal! Uh Oh! Too late for us, we're already booked. You are always taking your chances during hurricane season. If there is any way you can go in August or July, your chances are slightly better from what I have heard. We went in August two years ago and thought the weather was better than when we had gone in April. Good luck!

In September, you are taking your chances. Nevertheless, the likelihood that a storm will actually affect the location you are visiting is slim. Also, the storms generally take a long time to develop and you'll have plenty of warning in order to get yourself out of harm's way.

Having traveled to the Caribbean at all times of year, I can tell you that there are rewards to off-season travel: generally good weather, less crowds, lower prices. Those rewards come at a price (the risk of bad weather).

While you can't protect yourself from the disappointment of a vacation that wasn't all you'd hoped for, you can at least protect yourself financially by buying trip interruption insurance -- which will refund the non-refundable deposits you may lose as a result of a storm (e.g. room deposits, non-refundable air) and reimburse the expenses you may incur as a result (extra hotel nights and meals if you are stranded, etc.)

I'd delay my birthday 6 months and have a double celebration in March.

September is the riskiest month.

However, we honeymooned in the USVI in late Sept. and had great weather.

Are you feeling lucky?

I think travelling that time of year is just luck. It could be great or ???. We went to St John a couple years ago mid-October for 5 days. We did not hit a hurricane but a huge tropical depression. It poured I mean poured for 3 whole days. Not the 10 minute shower then clear up - poured 3 days. Horrible. But then probably people that went the next week hit good weather. So you just have to know the risk from Aug-Oct and just know that you could hit horrible weather or maybe not. My husband now refuses to travel to Caribbean in Aug-Oct timeframe except maybe Aruba.

We are renting a villa the first week of October for our honeymoon. And I'm a bit nervous about the weather. However, according to the villa owner, tropical storms and hurricanes in the earlier and later periods of the season tend to develop in the Gulf of Mexico and do not normally threaten the Antilles, where the Virgin Islands are located. Even if this was just to get us to rent the villa, it still made me feel a bit better. :)

This question comes up all the time. Unfortunately there is no "pat" answer as you are dealing with mother nature. One can only give you this generality - the Atlantic/Caribbean Hurricane Season officially runs from June 1 through November 30 with the most active period generally being the 6 weeks between September 1 and October 15 (interestingly enough August 2004 was extremely active as far as Hurricanes go so that should give you some indications as to the accuracy of generalized statements).

FYI - the National Weather Sevice is predicting that the 2005 Hurricane Season will be above average for storm activity with 12 to 15 Tropical Storms of which 7 to 9 will develope into hurricanes with 3 to 5 being classified as major hurricanes. Just how many of these will make landfall on any particular island in the Caribbean is anyone's guess. Last year the northern Leeward Islands, including the USVI's, were spared from any Hurricanes but islands like Grenada, St. Vincent and Grand Cayman were particularily hard hit. While it is true that the general weather in the Caribbean can be quite nice in September or October, provided a storm is not in close proximity, there's just no telling what will happen. You have to weigh the risks yourself and ask is it worth it to you to visit the Cariibean in September or October.

aks - very interested in this delay of birthday thing. is there a special place one applies for this? can the service be used more than once?

In Puerto Rico we are at most threat between Sept. 10 - Sept. 27, that is traditionally the time frame that we are almost always either hit or on a close call. I am guessing this is probably true for the USVI as well, for they are right next to Puerto Rico. But dont be scared if you are travelng in this time, just keep an eye on the weather and if something is imminent, move your trip foward, not a week after, its better to be here before, if you postpone to the week or the month after a big storm, there might not be power, trees, water , the beach will be dirty , ...
-Ricky

Most agencies offer travel insurance and if I were traveling to the Caribbean in September, I'd probably check into the insurance. In the other months of hurricane season, I'd roll the dice. We had beautiful weather in Negril for our honeymoon in Oct 2002, except for the last couple of days when a tropical wave moved through. June and July are not worth fretting over....riskier in August....and September is the "hot" month. October tends to be like July using the historic trend models.

Hi Virginia- the beauty of this is that as it's your own birthday, you can do with it what you want - no special permits needed ! You can have para-birthdays and pseudo-birthdays, trial-run birthdays anytime if the real day doesn't fit your plans - in this case the possiblity of a hurricane. If you change the date the celebration has to be emphasized for double the fun. Also - after you reach 40 you can be any age you want. I hope msdanap is reading this !!

aks - while not necessarily wishing to incur extra birthdays i do like the para/psuedo/trial thing and am already cheerfully lopping off a few years.
msdanap - as you can see fodorites are an intrepid bunch. we all seem to feel the risk is worth it for a chance to be in the islands. get the insurance and book your trip. if there is a little wind it will make for good stories.