Tropical Depression Anna and Hurricane Bill

The first hurricane of the season has formed over the Atlantic Ocean, as Tropical Depression Ana lost steam on approach to Puerto Rico, after becoming the first named storm to threaten the Dominican Republic this year.

Hurricane Bill is a category 1, whose maximum sustained winds increased to 75 miles (120 kilometers) an hour at 5 a.m. Miami time, the National Hurricane Center said on its Web site.

Ana, the first named storm of the June 1-Nov. 30 Atlantic hurricane season formed on Aug. 15, the latest into a season that it’s taken for a storm of that intensity to appear since 1984. Bill strengthened from a depression later that day over the eastern Atlantic.

Ana, now a depression with 35 mph winds, was over the Caribbean Sea, about 95 miles southeast of St. Croix. The depression is forecast to break up into a low-pressure system over the Dominican Republic and Haiti tomorrow.

Yesterday the authorities took the first measures to face emergencies and issued a tropical storm alert from Cabo Engaño in the east to Cabo Beata in the southwest.

TropicaL storm Ana

Hurricane season gets active-Tropical depression 2

POP Report, a must for visitors to Puerto Plata

 http://popreport.com/edition/

Hurricane season approaches

Even though the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane season forecast calls for moderate activity in 2009, it doesn’t diminish the fact that the hurricanes are coming. June 1 marks the official start of the season, which peaks in mid-September and early October and ends November 30. The Weather Research Center hurricane season forecast for 2009, which uses a model called the Orbital Cyclone Strike Index, shows at least seven named tropical storms with four becoming hurricanes. According to Scott Cordero, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi, the bulk of computer models currently indicate a neutral phase in El Nino and La Nina cycles, but about a third of the weather models still indicate differently. The official NOAA 2009 hurricane forecast won’t be out until May 24. So long, Ike, Gustav and Paloma have been “retired” by the World Meteorological Organization from their list of hurricane names. All three struck Cuba as powerful hurricanes. Gustav and Ike then moved into the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall and causing billions of dollars in damage in Louisiana and Texas, respectively. The names on the 2009 season are: Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, Wanda.

May edition of Costambar News

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Dominican hoteliers join forces to boost tourism in Puerto Plata

Puerto Plata.– Puerto Plata, the most important city in Dominican Republic’s north coast owns countless tourist attractions and sites of great historic and cultural value that should be taken better advantage of and put to better use. For this purpose, the Associations of Hotels, Restaurants and Tourism Business of Puerto Plata (Ashonorte), the Playa Dorada Hotel, Condominium and Commercial Establishment Owners Association (AHPD) and the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Sosua and Cabarete (Ashoresoca) have joined forces and signed a strategic alliance. According to the document, the alliance will set in motion a plan to promote Puerto Plata as a tourist destination and will stimulate the creation of new businesses and complementary offers and will cooperate with the city´s Historic Center Office in its tasks of remodeling, beautifying and revitalizing this cultural and commercial area.

Visitors at the Pottery – Part 1

1. Here you can see some visitors from Canada, they really enjoyed it and had fun.

November issue of Costambar News

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Hurricane Paloma

Paloma became an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane early Saturday, dumping wind and rain on the Cayman Islands and threatening to strike hurricane-ravaged Cuba as a major storm, forecasters said.

The late-season storm had top sustained winds of near 140 mph (225 kph) and was expected to bring total rainfall accumulations of 5 to 10 inches over the Cayman Islands as well as central and eastern Cuba.

The new forecast from the National Hurricane Center in Miami called for Paloma to make landfall in Cuba as a major hurricane late Saturday or early Sunday with maximum-sustained winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph).

Cuba already is suffering from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, which struck the island earlier this season and together caused an estimated $9.4 billion in damage.

Tropical Storm Omar

The National Hurricane Center of Miami said the center of Tropical Storm Omar is located near latitude 14.0 North, 69.0 longitude West, 570 kilometers southwest of Puerto Rico and 200 kilometers North of Curazao, as satellite imagery reveals its wide cloud mass.

It said the depression had reached tropical storm category southeast of Santo Domingo, with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour. “A tropical storm watch is in effect for Puerto Rico and the U.S., nd British Virgin Islands, and the extreme eastern portion of the Dominican Republic from Saona island to Cabo Engaño.”

In Santo Domingo the Meteorology Office said the phenomenon will gradually strengthen during the next 24 to 48 hours. It confirmed that the eastern portion of the Dominican Republic remains under a tropical storm watch from Saona Island to Cabo Engaño, area that has the most hotels in the country.

Puerto Plata Weather

 http://weather.yahoo.com/Puerto-Plata-Dominican-Republic/DRXX0005/forecast.html

Tropical Wave Eastern Caribbean

The National Meteorological Office (ONAMET) issued green alert for Montecristi, María Trinidad Sánchez, La Vega, Monseñor Nouel, Duarte, Elías Piña, Dajabón, Azua, Sánchez Ramírez, San Cristóbal, Independencia, Hermanas Mirabal, Santiago, Espaillat, Monte Plata and San Juan de la Maguana.

Also under green alert are other provinces, such as San José de Ocoa, Santiago Rodríguez, Valverde Mao, Santo Domingo, Peravia and Puerto Plata due to a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean near the Lesser Antilles that continues to get better organized.

Forecasters give the system a medium -or 20 to 50 percent chance- of developing into a tropical depression within the next hours. The computer models predict it will aim generally northwest, potentially putting the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas and Florida in its path.

 

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Costambar News

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Costambar Beach after Hurricane Ike

All we had was some heavy rain for a couple of hours and some strong winds, no damage at all her in Costambar. Ike passed about 200 km north of the island.

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