Travel this week? (re: Emily)
 

My family is supposed to be leaving for St John USVI tomorrow (Sunday 7/31) - anyone care to comment on the possible tropical depression/storm? Not sure if we should come anyways, or plan our trip somewhere else.

Go to these websites to track the movements of this possible storm. It's where all the "locals" get their information. Study the material and you'll know as much as anyone:

www.nhc.noaa.gov/
www.crownweather.com/?page_id=29
www.weathercarib.com/
http://stormcarib.com/

Try this site also:

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/new...m-don-bull.asp

It's not looking too good for the VI's right now, but might clear out by Wedensday.

We were so hoping that Don would rip through Texas and soak us. We are so dry we are literally ready to blow away. Our fresh water reserves are about depleted. We NEED rain, and it skipped right over us, so you can never tell.

we are scheduled to go next week 8/9. i'm worried about the weather, given we still have more than a week ahead of us, just read hurricane forecast for 2011 is higher than usual. looked at extended weather forecast on accuweather and its rain everyday...

kandco - extended on-line forecasts ALWAY, REPEAT ALWAYS predict rain. That's because it's the tropics and this time of year it is likely it will rain somewhere on any given island for some time every day. What the forecasts don't tell you is that rain is very often in the form of very widely scatter and very brief showers lasting minutes rather than hours. It is not unusual for it to rain in one area and there be bright sun 1/4 mile away. For example, on the island where I live it rained for about 7 minutes this morning and now there's hardly a cloud in the sky. Yesterday it rained twice - for 5 minutes around 9:00AM and again for 3 minutes around 4:15PM - you get the picture. For what it is worth, most of use islanders rarely look at the day to day forecasts as it's always the same.

This time of year we do, however, keep a watch on the "hurricane" websites mentioned in the earlier responses. Typically we get only a 4 or 5 day "warning" of an approaching storm. For example, the tropical wave that is churning out there now will most likely become Tropical Storm Emily. It has been out there for about a week but there have not yet been any predictions exactly where it might go so we just keep an eye on it. Perhaps later today or tomorrow the storm will actually form and we will get a better idea of where it will track. For what it is worth, that storm system should be long gone by this time next week.

Lastly, just because there is an active Tropical Storm or hurricane at the time of your trip it might not be anywhere close to the island you are planning to visit.

Hope this helps you understand Caribbean "weather" a bit better.

quotewright.com insuremytrip.com always wise cheap for me

have had to cancel a time or 2 over the years go elsewhere

always get my money back with storm cover

but odds are great the carriers will get you in...

Minor storms especially move fast and islands are small

so within a day you usually have clear skies.

PS for a "major" Hurricane like a CAT 3 and above would rescedule/go elsewhere... Kohala Coast my personal fav
in Carib storm season www.knoaweb.com gets less than 10 inches
of rain per year...Hapuna Prince my current fav great packages
on priceline.Direct LAX to KON 4 hours...

Why I love Priceline.com: Hapuna Prince for $105/night ...
It's a fantastic property, but a really far drive from the Kona area ... I stayed at Hapuna Prince on a similar Priceline deal last December and agree that it's a steal.
http://www.flyertalk.com/...love-pri...una-prince-105