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18 August, 2011

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 ??

3 comments:

JRinSC said...

Looks from here that TS Harvey (was invest 93?) is going to hit south of you, near Placencia. Hope it stays just a Tropical Storm.

I knew that if you could get the awning furled easily that you would be missed... that shows Murphy is alive and well..

Julian

Unknown said...

This morning its just a wonderful soft rain, perfect for all of the plants. Keeping fingers crossed.

Dave Rider said...

Nice soft rain, felt nice but chickened out on walkies. We turned around. Then it got sunny for a while. Can't second-guess the weather too much.
Yesterday, unfurled the awning in time for happy hour. This morning re-furled it for Harvey (nee Invest 93L) and cancelled the Men's Group meeting that would have happened here. Hopefully not second-guessing myself again.
Although, with the potential to be a Cat 1 on landfall. If furling it cancelled that, hey - we won!

Cheers,
Dave