California 2 Puerto Rico » Weather

Two in a Row?

Stefan — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:02:57 +0000

I just got back from a trip to Sears with my mom, signed into facebook and see all my friends down here talking about getting hit by a hurricane! Last I checked, they were just storms off of Cape Verde. Well, they are still just tropical storms but are predicted to deliver 50mph winds to the island starting on Tuesday.

Neither of them look very big, but they are both forecasted to hit Puerto Rico head on. Sweet, let’s see if the power company can justify their astronomic rates and keep our power going.

On a side note, how exciting for Sydney! She is only 2 weeks 6 days old and daddy is already telling her stories about how much fun hurricanes are. Rain, wind, everyone partying because no one has to go to work!

On another side note, the generator we have been planning on buying hasn’t been purchased yet. Maybe I’ll go get it on Monday with the rest of the island.

Rainy Season is in Full Effect

Stefan — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:01:03 +0000

Rainy Season is upon us and isn’t shy. It has been rainy almost every day for the past three weeks. It isn’t always an all day rain though, many of the days are just afternoon showers…lovely, humidity killing afternoon showers.

The thunder was rumbling this morning when I got up and went into the office around 6:30 and by 8:00am we were having power outages, downpours and a big stinky dog hiding under my desk forcing me to work side saddle. Here is a picture of the weather today…both satellite and via iPhone.

Rainy season has started again!

The plants are LOVING all of the rain

Rincon is Dry Dry Dry

Stefan — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:42:56 +0000

We could really use a couple days of rain. Rincon has been without a good rain shower in over a month and the land is showing it.

This morning I had to drive out to Home Depot to grab a couple tubes of Liquid Nails and I couldn’t help but notice how dry all of the hillsides are. It looks like southern California! For the most part, all of the grass is dead/yellow and most of the trees have lost their leaves. Even the bamboo on the side of the 115 is yellow and struggling for life.

I know it is just the cycle for down here. Dry all winter and wet all summer, but I am ready for rainy season to begin. We sure do have a lot of plants to water these days!

An October Storm Forms South of PR

Stefan — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:33:10 +0000

I know, we have had a quasi radio silence for the past two weeks or so. Don’t give us a hard time, I have been on the road for work and Summer has been in San Diego shipping the heck out of some Halloween Costumes.

I just called a buddy down there to see how things are going and he said fine, except for the fact that we are about to get hit by a hurricane! Yep, that’s right. The weather forecasters are saying that this tropical storm is going to form into a hurricane and head north right smack into Puerto Rico.

We were so lucky all season this year. We had a bunch of storms move North of us and South of us, but none of them hit Puerto Rico directly. We had one storm that past us, then slid back and knocked out our power for a couple of days…but nothing major.

This storm is going to hit Puerto Rico, its just a matter of how powerful it gets before it runs over the island.

Oh well, I guess it just comes with the territory. I sure wish I were there with our friends watching the house so I could help lock it up tight and secure anything that might blow away in the wind.

Politics and Utilities

Stefan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:25:24 +0000

For the past two months, we have been loosing power to the house regularly. We have had plenty of tropical storm action blowing harsh winds and dropping dozens of inches of rain on us here in Rincon and I have attributed the regular power outages to the weather conditions. Well, last night at poker, some of the local guys were talking about how much the power has been going out and why (power went out twice last night forcing our poker game to slow down and run on candle power).

A few of the guys said the reason the power is going out so much is because it is election time. I didn’t really understand, so I asked what the elections had to do with the utility company. They all agreed that every election season things go wrong, in this case, the electric company is having problems supplying power to Rincon. They continued to explain that the current mayor will announce that he has fixed the issues with the power company right before the election and that we will not have any more power outages. In short, the current government is making the power go out so they can look like champions and get more votes by saying they fixed it right before voting day.

I have to admit that election time is in November and Puerto Rico gets a lot of heavy weather systems, tropical storms and hurricanes in the months prior to election day. To me, logic dictates that the weather is the reason for the power problems in Rincon but what do I know about Puerto Rico? This country has its own way of doing things. What do you guys think?

Power Outage and Rainy Weather

Stefan — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:10:37 +0000

I woke up this morning at 6:00am. I have a lot of things I would like to do today, none of them are related to working on the house or yard

I worked on ‘work stuff’ all day Saturday to take today (Monday) off and go golfing. The only thing stopping me from going to Aguadilla to the golf course was going to be the possibility of waves. Last night, at last light, the surf was starting to show up about knee high and I called my golf buddy with an audible: “let’s bring our surfboards to the golf course, if the surf is good, we’ll surf, then golf.”

Mother nature had a different plan for us today. I woke up, and it has been raining all night and is still raining this morning. Golf is out. I am heading out the door to surf, knowing that if there is no surf, I can keep myself busy on the computer working for the next 24 hours straight (maybe just 8 or 9 hours), but alas, the power just went out. I am typing this on battery back-up. Pray for Surf.

Finally, Puerto Rico Gets Some Surf

Stefan — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:06:04 +0000

It has been a long of summer of no surf in Rincon. Plenty of time to plant, build and work. However, that doesn’t leave much time to keep my sanity! Two/Three months without surf makes Stefan a dull boy.

This past hurricane (Hanna) that cruised north of us, then south east to hit us and then back up North sent us some waves…just not in Rincon. I drove up to Isabella and surfed with about 50 of my closest friends (just kidding). It was head high to a couple feet over head, glassy and lined up.

Yesterday, I surfed in Rincon. I don’t have pictures but it was a South swell wrapping around the point and breaking in front of The Tamboo. Glassy lefts breaking into the bay towards Aguadilla. That swell direction is so uncharacteristic of Rincon it is weird to see the waves breaking there. There was a bunch of sand on the bottom where there is normally reef. I broke one leash and busted out the center fin of my fish. Not really a good day for equipment, but perfect for my head.

September Storm Action

Stefan — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:36:23 +0000

So far, we have had an extremely active Hurricane season on the Atlantic. We are already to Josephine which is about halfway through the 2008 named hurricane/tropical storm list. I think Ike is going to swing in and give us a taste of wind and rain. At best, we’ll get some surf. What do you guys think?

Tropical Storm Update – August 12

Stefan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:25:59 +0000

There is some action in the Atlantic Ocean. There are a few storms rolling around the Atlantic that are typical of this time of year.

Here is what the Nation Hurricane Center has to say about the closer of the two storms:

A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE ASSOCIATED WITH A TROPICAL WAVE IS
LOCATED 650 MILES EAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES. ASSOCIATED SHOWER
AND THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY HAS BEEN GRADUALLY INCREASING…AND A
TROPICAL DEPRESSION COULD FORM DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO AS THE
SYSTEM MOVES WEST-NORTHWESTWARD OR NORTHWESTWARD AT 10 TO 15 MPH.
AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO
INVESTIGATE THIS SYSTEM LATER TODAY…IF NECESSARY.

National Hurricane Center Widget

Stefan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:32:13 +0000

I am reporting a bunch of information from The National Hurricane Center regarding tropical storms in the Atlantic and Hurricane information. Conner suggested that I get a National Hurricane Center widget for the site so we can track hurricanes right from Ca2Pr.com.

Great idea Conner: Here is our Hurricane Tracking Widget

If you want to add this widget to your site or blog, copy and paste this code into your site.
<param name="movie" value="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/flash/wrapper/InsertWidget.swf"/><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="menu" value="false" /><param name="flashvars" value="r=2&appId=c20a6f0d-713b-4b56-8cfc-8291f2a34536" />