Cruising Tips

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Key West - Rain, Rain Rain...

None of these big guys went out today
We have encountered our first "river of rain" this year. Last year on our return trip we encountered weather where we might be located 1/2 way up the coast and a band of rain, perhaps only 30 miles wide, would flow like a river, moving along the direction of the band of rain. Just north of us and just south of us was rain free but we were in the middle of the rain river - usually all day long. Well, that's what we seem to have now except it's centered on Key West and flowing right over the top of us, all day long. The added interesting point for us is that we have a dog that needs to go out every once in awhile, so it's the full wet suit for me  but Hoolie just has his fur. For a water dog, that's not too bad - his coat sheds water like a duck.

Wyland mural - all around Key West
Many of the stores and restaurants are closed around here. BO's Fish Wagon was closed, they really don't have much of a roof and no sides at all, I don't think Schooner's is much better. Key West mostly closes down with this type of rain. However, we can't complain since this is the first rainy day we've had since we left PYC in September. We have plans to go sailing on Monday but it looks rather doubtful given that the forecast for Monday is the same as for Sunday. We'll wait and make our final decision at 9:00 am Monday. I'll have a dinghy to pump out in the morning!

1 comment:

  1. Bob FYI...
    SPECIAL TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
    NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
    645 PM EST SUN FEB 5 2012

    FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

    A NON-TROPICAL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM INTERACTING WITH AN UPPER-LEVEL
    TROUGH IS PRODUCING WIDESPREAD CLOUDINESS...SHOWERS...AND SCATTERED
    THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS MUCH OF WESTERN AND CENTRAL CUBA...THE LOWER
    FLORIDA KEYS...AND ADJACENT WATERS OF THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN
    SEA...SOUTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO...AND THE FLORIDA STRAITS. THE
    LOW IS CENTERED JUST WEST OF THE WESTERN TIP OF CUBA...AND A
    SURFACE CIRCULATION CENTER IS GRADUALLY BECOMING BETTER DEFINED.
    SHOWER ACTIVITY HAS BEEN SLOWLY INCREASING AND HAS BECOME BETTER
    ORGANIZED TODAY...AND IF THIS DEVELOPMENT TREND CONTINUES...THEN A
    SUBTROPICAL DEPRESSION OR A SUBTROPICAL STORM COULD FORM DURING THE
    NEXT DAY OR SO BEFORE THE DISTURBANCE MERGES WITH A COLD FRONT.
    THIS SYSTEM HAS A MEDIUM CHANCE...30 PERCENT...OF BECOMING A
    SUBTROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS AS IT MOVES SLOWLY
    NORTH-NORTHEASTWARD TONIGHT AND MONDAY MORNING...BEFORE TURNING
    NORTHEASTWARD AT 10 TO 15 MPH TOWARD SOUTH FLORIDA AND THE FLORIDA
    KEYS BY MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. REGARDLESS OF DEVELOPMENT...
    THIS SYSTEM WILL LIKELY BRING LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AND STRONG
    GUSTY WINDS TO PORTIONS OF THE FLORIDA KEYS AND SOUTH FLORIDA OVER
    THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS SYSTEM CAN
    BE FOUND IN OFFSHORE WATERS FORECASTS ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER
    SERVICE...UNDER AWIPS HEADER MIAOFFNT3 AND WMO HEADER FZNT24
    KNHC...AND ALSO IN PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER
    SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE. ADDITIONAL SPECIAL TROPICAL WEATHER
    OUTLOOKS WILL BE ISSUED AS NEEDED.

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