Happy Thanksgiving! It’s a wet one here and a dangerous one for our neighbors. Here are a couple images from the Weather Underground.
Otto is now a category 2 hurricane with winds of 110 MPH, and the track looks a bit north of where it was yesterday making landfall in Nicaragua just above the Costa Rica border. As I mentioned yesterday, this is an area of nature preserves so hopefully there are less people there so less danger to life and property.
Yikes! I lived in Florida too long and studied too many of these maps. I know what this means.
La Prensa, one of our Panamanian news sources, is saying that weather is now returning to normal in Panama. There are still four people missing though and lots of storm damage to clean up. Things are hardly normal for our neighbors however, and many people have been evacuated from the coastal areas. Many people also refused to leave, wanting to stay and protect their property. I remember this was sometimes a problem in Florida also, and very discouraged because if you got in trouble nobody could make it out to help you.
I love the windy tv site! As you can see, we are still getting rain here (the other purple spot). It rained like crazy yesterday afternoon and evening. It continued off an on through the night and is still lightly raining now. A friend pointed out that if you go to this site, choose “wind” and then “surface” in the very lower right, it brings up a menu where you can see the winds at different elevations. Check out the first one, 150, and you can see the hurricane spitting out all the wind above itself. How interesting!
So, that is the latest on the storm from soggy Panama. Our rain is moving west so we’ll be out of it soon, and there shouldn’t be any more unusual weather to report from here. I’ll keep an eye on our neighbors though, and hope for the best for them.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
The Panama Adventure 
Happy Thanksgiving to you Kris! What will you have for supper tonight? Is turkey still an option for you? Glad your safe and hoping you continue to be
Suzanne
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Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving to you too! I must have gotten the holiday spirit early because a couple frozen turkey legs from Pricesmart called to me and we had turkey for the last couple nights. There are some turkey dinners in restaurants for those who want to go out, and there have been turkeys available in the supermarkets for those who want to cook at home. I’m not sure what we are going to do though. I worked so many holidays that they have become uneventful for me, but I have SO much to be thankful for that every day is Thanksgiving here. I hope you have a great day. 🙂
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Kris,
This is really a late season storm & much farther south than usual. Hope all turns out well. Happy Thanksgiving & God Bless.
John
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Yes indeed. It is likely to pass over Costa Rica and if the article I read is correct, this is the first time ever for a storm to hit CR, the farthest south in history and like you said, it is also unusually late in the season.
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Thanks for your reports.. seems ottos i going to cling to water as long as possible.. lt’s hope he’s on best behavior when he crosses CR/Nica…
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Unfortunately no. It spent the night ramping up in strength and should be landing right about now as a category 2. I saw an article that confirmed what I thought, that it is landing in a fairly unpopulated area so that is good. It is also good that it is a very compact storm so the dangerous winds don’t extend very far from the center. A lot of places are going to get a good soaking though including the more populated western Nicaragua and northwest Costa Rica, and includling our beloved Ometepe Island. https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3512
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Glad you’re alright Kris. Thanks for the daily updates on the storm – they’ve been interesting to follow (we have our share of hurricanes here in North Carolina, so know what it’s like, and the uncertainty as to which way the winds going to blow next…)
Stay safe (hope the laundry dries, or you find a dryer in a laundromat), – Wendy
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Thanks, no worries, we are fine, just wet.
My daughter moved to NC not long after we moved to FL. We were sitting peacefully in FL while they got hit twice, the year of Floyd. It was crazy! Thank goodness she had moved shortly before because the people in her old apartment building were rescued by helicopter as the water reached the second floor. There was talk about divers at the electric plant trying to keep the power on. Yes indeed, you know about hurricanes.
The laundry is still damp but I think this should end in another day or two. Then we can rewash the laundry and try again.
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