It is now Belize's prime time for potential storm activity. Please check the weather forecasts at least once a day for the next 8 weeks.

Rob Lightbown of Crown Weather is cautioning us to look out for possible storm threats this weekend and into early next week. Some of the models are pointing to development.

In many cases a storm that is "born" here doesn't necessary affect us with much wind (since they spin off into neighbouring bodies of water and countries to wreak havoc) but we can get many inches of rainfall which cause devastating flooding, destroy crops and cause mud slides etc.

Be prepared. Be safe.

Shocking - http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1088&tstamp=200809

Makes you think twice about riding out a storm.

No Mangroves

No mangroves and no barrier reef. Boating across Galveston Bay in the a.m. Our place is still there as viewed by Nat. Satelite. We are very lucky. Many people will not be found. Our place is on Crystal Beach North on the intercoastal side of the pennisula. All but 5 of @ 50 beach front homes are 100% gone, not even a stick left. Some slabs. Anyone in any of those homes could not have survived. We left Thurs. a.m Sept 11. I'll have video and stills this weekend. I'll try to share and find pics taken July 4th this year for comparison.

Wow, so sorry your community has been so severely impacted.

OMG!!

I can't help wondering how that one house is left looking to be in such good condition though. One does see this kind of thing in a toronado but in a hurricane that swathed the area completely, how is it that the one house appears unscathed?

My heart goes out to all those in the Galveston/Bolivar area.
Amanda is correct - stay aware, and don't wait for CNN to tell us we're having a weather issue. Don't eat all your hurricane food, keep your plan in place .........
I can recall Mitch - we could see the thing on satellite and know we were in deep poop a full day before it got media attention. Learn, watch and listen.

I've heard so many people complain that the potential for damage and death in Ike was sensationalized. Really?!

With hurricanes there are usually many "mini" tornados. I've seen three houses right next to each other and after the hurricane comes through, the house in the middle is gone and the other two are still standing undamaged.

Yes, we saw that happen here on the island with Hurricane Keith.

Good wished for your home and for all of your neighbors. I hope they left.

Well, as I said, one does see such a thing with toronados, but I can't figure out how this one house was left the way it was, when it was the wind and the rising sea that took the swath there.

So sorry about this. Such a shame they haven't found a way to change a storm's behaviour - interfere with the pattern or something.

Hope people there are ok.

Connie

Tomorrow will be the seasons last Tropical Weather Update on the Weather channel. They said....'Unless something develops we are at the end of the Hurricane Season and wont be giving the Tropic Update reports hourly on the Weather Channel'.
When was Keith?

Keith was Sep 23 - Oct6 (more or less) and Mitch was around Oct 26 - 30 more or less.

The official end is November 1, but remember a couple of years ago there was a tropical storm somewhere out there in December.....really late in the year....I think it might have been the same year as "Emily" and "Wilma"

November 30th is end of hurricane season.

I stand corrected. Thank you Amanda

But shuffles we shall still hope and pray that there will be NO storms this year.

That is for sure....I was just trying to recall the one that sprung up sometime after Christmas....a few years ago....had a place full of guests and they are all in total shock that a storm was out there...it didn't affect us, but was still weird that it came up that late in the year.

I'm pretty sure I read about there having been recorded hurricanes in every month of the year.

June- too soon.
July-- stand by!
August-- look out you must.
September-- remember.
October, all over.

Hurricane Hattie - Oct 31st. Category 5 storm. Devastated much of Belize.

From Dr. Jeff Masters:

Late season Atlantic tropical storms
What are the odds of getting a late-season November or December tropical storm? In the active hurricane period that began in 1995, we've had nine tropical storms in November, and four in December, for an average of one late season storm per year. Six of these late season storms have become hurricanes. The record for late season named storms is four, which occurred in 2005, when three November and one December storm formed. The typical formation location for these late-season storms is the Western Caribbean or the middle Atlantic (Figure 1). The Western Caribbean storms are the most dangerous. There have been two Category 4 hurricanes that have formed in November in that region, Hurricane Lenny of 1999 (the strongest late-season hurricane on record, with 155 mph winds), and Hurricane Michelle of 2001. November storms are primarily a theat to Central America, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, and the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Quote from the san pedro daily this am...
Dr. Jeff Masters:
Given past climatology, warm SSTs in the Caribbean, and forecast low wind shear over the Caribbean for the first half of November, I put the odds at 50% we will see a named storm in the western or south-central Caribbean in the first half of November. Given the recent history of such storms, there is a 50% chance that such a storm would become a hurricane