Wintry weather in Roatan

Today it's been a "cool" 75 degrees here in the Bay Islands as an Arctic cold front moves through the area. We've had some rough seas and squally, rainy weather.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

the calm (and the rainbow) before the storm

The first cold front of the winter season is sliding in to the Gulf of Honduras and the Bay Islands during the next 36 hours. Late this afternoon I took these photos of the Paya Bay area before the stormy weather began to set in.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

winter storm in black & white

Yesterday (and for the 24 hours before it) a strong cold front slid across the Gulf of Honduras. I'm guessing its the same front that has resulted in record low temperatures in many places in North America. One thing about stormy weather: it makes for great photos. Here are some I took yesterday. I opted for the unique beauty of black and white photography.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.

it's cool/warm in Roatan

Cool for us tropical dwellers, warm for freezing North Americans. Come on down!

Source: Google

brrrrrrrr!

Wow. It's SO COLD in North America!

it's nice and cool in Roatan

Or as North Americans might say, "It's nice and warm." ;-)

Source: Google

it's "cold" in roatan!

Google says it's currently 72 degrees (22 C) in Roatan. An Arctic cold front (largely defanged by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico) has been sliding across the Gulf of Honduras the past 48 hours. After some stormy weather, a gentle, cold rain is now falling outside. Note that the forecasted high for tomorrow is a mere 78 degrees (26 C). I've experienced it getting as cold as 65 degrees (18 C) here in the Bay Islands, but this is our more typical winter chill. After the front moves through, we'll get glorious, sunny beach weather again. Winter in the Caribbean!

Map: NOAA

the great sargasso invasion of 2015

Winter in the Caribbean is characterized by a series of cold fronts that burst out and quickly seep down from the hyper-frigid Arctic every couple of weeks or so. The fronts, known locally as "Northers," unload most of their cold fury on the landmass of North America, warm up significantly as they cross over the relatively tepid waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and enter the Caribbean region a mere shadow of their former bone-crackingly cold selves.

The seasonal visits of the Arctic air masses typically begin affecting the Caribbean region in mid October, occur most frequently during the months of December thru February, but can show up as late as March. As mentioned, the bodies of cold air lose a lot of their chill and oomph as they slide into the warmth of southern latitudes, yet upon arrival in the tropics they can (and do) cool ambient temps noticeably (when a Norther is blowing it can get as "cold" as 65 degrees Fahrenheit [18 Celsius] at night here in Roatan). The encounter between the visiting Arctic air and the resident moist, tropical air invariably results in at least a couple of days of rainy, stormy weather as the front moves through.

This winter, the storm events produced by the Northers have been followed by unusually large  "invasions" of Sargasso seaweed. Literally, millions of tons of sargasso weeds have been pushed by waves from the winter storms from the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea basin (and unto our beaches and seashore). While an unusually high volume of this particular species of seaweed may be a cyclical phenomenon, one can't help but wonder if this strange occurrence isn't yet another eerie 'canary in the mineshaft' result of global climate change.

Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.