Invest 93L

Again with the questions. "Just what is Invest 93L", you ask?

Well, without knowing a great deal about it, an invest is an area of disturbed weather that bears watching and tracking as it could develop into a tropical wave, depression, storm or even a hurricane. The professional weather guessers begin tracking these things over near the Azores in the Eastern Atlantic, following them on until they eventually dissipate somewhere far away.

This one, Invest 93L, started off heading west and never deviated. Oh sure, the modelling (they run four or five different modelling tools to project where it might go, kept indicating that it would either turn north or south, but 93L was stubborn enough to just keep heading west.

By that I mean, pretty much toward Belize. In this case, it is beginning to look like it will actually impact Honduras more than Belize, but you know what I mean. The barrel of the gun looks like it's aimed right at us even when it might miss by a smidge.

The most current information on 93L, paraphrased from the National Hurricane Center:

Heavy rains will spread over Northern Honduras and Northeast Nicaragua tonight. 93L will slow to 5 - 10 mph by Friday, so it could become a major event for Honduras.

By the time 93L reaches Belize, probably on Friday night or Saturday, we could see rainfall in the area of 4 - 8 inches.

The Weather Underground has a nice series of diagrams showing the latest modelling tracks and other stuff about 93L at (http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201193_model.html).

So, in anticipation of 93L's arrival, perhaps tomorrow afternoon or so, we took the opportunity to train ourselves and see just what it took to slide the awning back. Since it doesn't look like we're going to be faced with hurricane force winds, we decided to just tie it off on the leeward stanchion.

Rolled-Up Awning

As you can see, it rolled up into a nice, tidy bundle. It was pretty easy to do, with just some nudging along with a broom-stick all that was necessary to keep it moving.

From Another View

 We also had Cody going around the property this morning picking up the debris that tends to accumulate that could become missiles if we had a hurricane. Better safe than sorry.

And, just in case you're wondering, the deck is way hotter with no awning. We had forgotten just how hot that could become and how naked and exposed the deck seems. I can't wait until we run the awning back out.

Just in case you're interested, I copied all the tropical storm and hurricane information for Belize from the Weather Underground maps. Look under Hurricane Archive on the right-hand side (http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/). When you look at the big picture, over time, it sure looks like a lot of activity. Still, the locals think Belize is lucky when it comes to hurricanes.So, it's all in your perspective.

YEAR	STORMS
1864	Hurricane #3
1866	Hurricane #2
1870	Hurricane #11
1874	Hurricane #6
1892	Hurricane #7
1893	Hurricane #2
1898	Windward Islands Hurricane, TS-6
1906	Hurricane #8
1916	Hurricane #14
1917	TS-1
1918	Hurricane #1
1920	Hurricane #2
1921	Hurricane #1
1922	TS-1
1924	TS-1
1926	TS-9
1927	TS-6
1931	Belize Hurricane, TS-2, TS-3, TS-4
1932	TS-8, San Ciprian Hurricane
1934	Central American Hurricane
1936	Hurricane #8, Hurricane #10
1938	TS-5
1939	TS-1
1940	TS-6
1941	Hurricane #4
1942	Hurricane #2, TS-4
1943	TS-10
1944	TS-2
1945	Hurricane #1, Hurricane #10
1946	Hurricane #5
1952	TS-1
1954	TS-Gilda
1955	Hurricane Janet
1956	Hurricane Flossy
1960	Hurricane Abby
1961	Hurricane Hattie, Hurricane Carla
1964	Hurricane Isbell
1969	Hurricane Laurie
1971	Hurricane Kara, TS-Chloe
1974	Hurricane Fifi, Hurricane Carmen
1977	TS-Frieda
1978	Hurricane Greta
1980	TS-Hermione
1990	Hurricane Diana
1993	Hurricane Gert
1995	Hurricane Opal
1996	TS-Kyle
1999	TS-Katrina
2000	Hurricane Keith
2001	Hurricane Iris, TS-Jerry
2007	TS-Barry, Hurricane Felix, Hurricane Dean
2008	TS-Arthur
2010	TS-Alex, TS-Karl
2011	??