first Atlantic storm of the season

Tropical Storm Bertha is born! I have written so much about hurricanes and weather on this blog that i feel like saying these things is like deja vu. Here goes again:

Contrary to popular belief Antigua does not get hit by hurricanes every year. Antigua has been directly hit by hurricanes 6 times since 1954. Most of them happened to be in the 1990s and the media had a field day. The conditions only last for a day and sometimes hurricane force winds only lasted a few hours. Either way your chances of getting hit by a hurricane are pretty slim if you think about it. Six days of hurricane force winds over the past nineteen thousand seven hundred and ten days. Its amazing what numbers can sound like when you play with them a bit. All that being said, you have to keep checking the forecasts during hurricane season (june to november). A great place to look is http://www.stormcarib.com/ where i write from time to time too. A week ago forecasters using the most sophisticated computers and software started predicting that a storm could form just off Africa due to all the favorable conditions coming together there. So said so done. A huge bulk of cloud mass came out of the jungle and turned into a named tropical storm. Tropical Storm Bertha seen on the far right of this image:

is of no threat at all to the Caribbean but is something to talk about. Its forecast by all the super duper computer models to miss the Caribbean totally not even giving us some rain. With a small fleet of boats to look after, i am constantly checking the weather throughout hurricane season and will let you know if there is anything out there that needs looking at. Every year the forecasters for this area get better and better and i feel more and more relaxed during this season. For now, its going to be a nice calm week coming up after a so so weekend. Tomorrow is my GF's birthday and we are gonna do some sailing on Ocean Nomad. Will take some snaps. Enjoy yours.