What Should We Do?
 

Hello My Turks and Caicos Experts! I am looking at the weatherchannel.com reports and it's not looking very good right now in T&C. My husband and I are due there on the 19th of this month. We are wondering should we reschedule for a later date(we do have travel insurance), or should we brave the potentially stormy weather and continue on with our vacation. Please advise. Thanks!

We were there last week and we had a little bit of rain for several days, though the reports showed we should have had sun every day. The odd thing about T&C is that it can be sunny in one spot and rainy right next to it in another spot. It also rained every night but we didn't notice it, except for the puddles in the morning. We didn't have to interrupt any of our plans do to rain. It's up to you...It's horrible to pay that much money and wonder if you won't be able to do much or if the weatherman is even correct at all. I'd check accuweather.com, too.

there are more accurate carib weather sites.
this site will give you a week out: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/...6,-72.26999664

this site is a weatherwatcher sort of thing. you can read the main bulletins, then on the right click on turks & caicos for info from the island: http://www.stormcarib.com/
according to dave this storm should be well gone before the 19th.

If you look at weather reports for all the Caribbean, there's always a chance of rain in the forcast. That's very common in the tropics.

I'm going down there on Sunday (before you).

While no one can predict the weather that far ahead (not even weathermen) in general, when it does storm (and these are just my experiences) most of the time it's at night, or a passing shower for 20 minutes. T&C is one of the drier islands of the world. The sun will come out.

Before I went to Peru and Ecuador last week, I too looked at weather forcasts. It's the beginning of rainy season in Peru (which T&C doesn't even really have a rainy season) and forcasts were 60-80% rain everyday. In 10 days, It only rained overnight and 1 morning in Peru, then the sun shone brightly and intesely the rest of the afternoon.

Sometimes the weathermen in VA (locally) can't get it right.

I would rather be in the rain in the Caribbean, than in the rain here! ;-)

Think it's too early to cancel but check your policy to see if you can cancel because you choose to do so. Many limit changes only if there is problem - planes not flying, destination wrecked by storm damage, etc.

Travellers to any tropical island should NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER, look at long range weather forcasts as they almost always predict rain. If you checked them everyday for a year you'd swear the sun never shines in the islands.

While there are times when major storms are in the area (you have to look at satelite photos to be sure) the chances are the references to rain are the typical tropical shower which occur on most islands at one time or another during any given 24 hour period. What they don't tell you as these generally are very brief (lasting only minutes) and very localized (often raining in one area and having bright sun 1/4 mile away.

Don't fret, pack plenty of sunblock and leave your rain gear at home.

FYI - beachplum is right, most travel policies do not provide coverage if you cancel your trip just because of rain (except in the case of a hurricane and even then coverage can be limited0. Read the fine print to find out what your policy covers.

Thanks for the posts! We are excited and looking forward to a great vacation, rain or not.

I just got back from T&C (Provo). I was there from Dec 6 - 13, and the advance forecasts were 30% rain every day. As others have said, most of the time, the rain showers are brief, and they often are overnight, so those should have little impact on your vacation. But, Wednesday (Dec 12) was pretty much an entire day of rain, and the winds throughout the trip were stronger than I remembered them being during my visit in April/May.