Summer in the BVI is hot, humid and generally lacking in excitement, unless you include hurricanes, of course.  By 5AM you can bank on temperatures of about 85°F (about 30°C for those of you who have moved with the times) and around about 85% humidity.  By 7:30AM things are beginning to ratchet up a bit and we’re looking at a day with top temperatures (including heat index) of about 105°F (41C).  Thus most of us live/work in an air-conditioned bubble, and the lucky ones get out of Dodge!

Hurricanes feed on the energy that exists in the warmth of the sea, and we’re all closet sea-surface-temperature buffs,  keeping a beady eye on levels year round but particularly in the summer months.  In the winter the sea surface temperature hovers at about 80°F (27C), but as summer creeps in the temperatures rise inexorably towards the high-80s.  Wonderful for swimming (I do not like cold water), but also a good environment for storm development.

This summer, we were lucky enough to get off to France at the end of July, thereby missing storms A to N (Earl & Fiona were those that came closest to the BVI before our return), for which we were very thankful.  However, 3 days after we arrived back the weather system that would go on to become Hurricane Otto dumped 24.5″ (62CM) of rain on the BVI in just 72 hours.  That is a lot of rain, trust me.  We had flooding, landslides. roads washed away, power cuts.  Basically everything that you normally get with a hurricane, but the weather lasted longer – a hurricane is normally past in about 24 hours.

Today the storm that is causing concern is Tomas, which is forecast to deal yet another blow to the Haitians.  I hope that they’re lucky and the storm moves west of its current track, as the last thing that poor country needs is another natural disaster.  They have had more than enough to contend with.  Our fingers are crossed and our thoughts are with them.