El Niño (and after) at home

Graphs shown below are updated usually twice a week.
Last update includes data up to 13 November, 2002

Every day the lowest and highest temperatures are recorded at my place (always at the same conditions). These two temperatures are then included in the graphs below. The first graph shows data collected since the end of 1994 until now. One can see a clear difference between summer and winter temperatures, except for winter 1997/98, when the temperatures both during the day and and night did not drop to the usual level. This was one of visible aspects of El Niño. Winter in 1999 didn't look too good as well. A few times during that winter we have had temperatures lower than in previous years (see the graph below), but in general the period of lower temperatures was much shorter than in "normal" years. That year (1999) was also different in another aspect - rainy season has started with a delay of about one month, also termites emerged with a similar delay.
Each vertical line indicates January 1st. Please note that Celsius temperature scale is used in all graphs. To convert into the Fahrenheit scale use the formula T(F)=9/5*T(C)+32, where T(C) is the temperature in the Celsius scale.

Lowest daily temperatures in 1999, compared to the average of 1995-1996, 1998, and 1997.

The first graph on this page shows that years 1995 and 1996 were relatively "normal" in this respect, that in winter the temperatures dropped to the usual level. That is the reason why I have used these two years to calculate the average temperatures. This average then is treated as a reference.
The graphs below may be viewed with any screen resolution but if you could switch to resolution 1280x1024, you would be able to see all graphs at once.
Like the two graphs on top of this page, the graphs below are updated at least once a week.

Highest daily temperatures in 1999, compared to the average of 1995-1996, 1998, and 1997.

Temperatures in 1998 and 1997 compared to the years 1995 and 1996

Looks like in 1997/98 we have had no winter. Normally in the second half of February and beginning of March we used to have the lowest temperatures, both at night, and during the day. 1997 (red lines in the graphs below) in this respect was quite normal, not very much different from the average for the years 1995-96 (black lines), at least until about April. Then in November the temperature normally begins to go down and then we have winter (well, sort of...). The end of 1997 was different, as you can see in the graphs below. And the beginning of 1998 (blue lines) doesn't look better. Note that the temperatures in 1998 are most of the time quite a bit higher than in 1997, and also higher than the average of 1995-96. We can say that both about the lowest temperatures recorded at night, and the highest during the day.

First two graphs show the lowest daily temperatures (in Celsius scale):

average temperature in 1995-96 (black line)

temperature in 1997 (red line)

temperature in 1998 (blue line) until December 31, 1998

Note: Data for days number 265 - 268 corresponds to hurricane Georges that was kind enough to go through Mayagüez during the night 21/22 September 1998. As a result of the hurricane, data for days 266, 267, and 268 is not reliable. These days can be seen on the graph below as a short horizontal segment in the blue line. The level of this line corresponds to the lowest temperature during the hurricane (22.5 degrees Celsius!).
You can also see that for several days after the hurricane the lowest daily temperature was quite a bit lower than in 1997 at this time.

More about hurricane Georges and other hurricanes.

The graph below shows the difference (in degrees Celsius) between the lowest daily temperatures in 1998 and 1997. Note that since the beginning of 1998 the temperatures are quite a bit higher than in 1997 almost all the time (parts of the graph above the zero level).

These two graphs show similar data as the graphs above, but the highest temperature each day is shown.

The graph below shows the difference (in degrees Celsius) between the highest daily temperatures in 1998 and 1997. Note that since the beginning of 1998 the temperatures are quite a bit higher than in 1997 almost all the time (parts of the graph above the zero level).

Hurricanes that visited Puerto Rico in recent years.

Georges - 21 September, 1998, until now...

Look at the satellite picture of hurricane Georges, taken at 10:45 a.m. local time, several hours before entering Puerto Rico on September 21, 1998.

Another look, half an hour later, and from a slightly different perspective. This is a large picture in color, best viewed with screen resolution at least 1280x1024 pixels (I'm sorry, I think this link is dead now - apparently the host decided to remove that picture. I will wait a few more days, maybe this is a temporary problem).

About 20 hours later, at 7:15 local time, hurricane Georges approaches Dominican Republic. The eye can be clearly seen here. It went through Mayagüez about seven hours earlier, at midnight local time. We had half an hour of almost total silence, then suddenly everything started all over again, with winds blowing from an opposite direction. According to what I know now, the maximum sustained wind here in Mayagüez was 175.4 km/h (109 miles per hour) with gusts up to 248 km/h (154 miles per hour).

Another picture, also taken at 7:15 local time, on September 22, 1998. This time you can see an enhanced infrared, which presents a breathtaking view of the eye. Darkest parts indicate the coldest cloud tops, several kilometers thick, with strongest winds and heaviest rain. Something of that sort went through Mayagüez that night.

Now have a look at several pictures of destruction in places where Arecibo Observatory Employees lived. Use "Back" button of your browser if you want to come back to this page after viewing the pictures.

Water Situation
(scroll down for an update or click here)

We had hurricane Georges here on September 21, 1998. After that I had no electricity for 11 days, and until November 6 (44 days!) - no water (and I got cable tv on November 19, but with so much interference that it was impossible to watch until November 24). I was asking visitors of this page to keep their fingers crossed so I would get water back before the end of this century. Finally I got it after 44 days. Thank you, whoever you are. It's quite possible I will ask you again, so please visit this page often.

By the end of 20th century the city (and not only this city) is unable to provide basic services to its own people. We are fully prepared to begin the 21st century.

We have had constant problems with water since more than a year before Georges (that means in 1997) but at least once in a while there was water in the pipes. This time it was gone for quite some time.
During the past year we heard these explanations:
a) Before Georges:
- there is no water because it doesn't rain
- there is no water because it rains too much
- there is not enough water because Mayagüez expanded and grew in last few years
b) After Georges
- there is no water because of the hurricane damage
- there is water in Mayagüez but we are not getting it because somebody forgot about the fuel for the pumps
- there is water in Mayagüez but the water processing plant can't process enough for everybody.
We are now waiting for the next version in case we lose water again.
By the way - on November 22 water disappeared twice, each time for about half an hour...

My optimistic estimate was that we would get water for Christmas. The question was, which year... I hoped that I would have a chance to try my new dishwasher before the warranty expires (September 1999). As you can see, I'm an optimist - otherwise I wouldn't have bought that dishwasher at all. And I was right. On the other hand, I have heard that the same day I got water other people lost it. Looks like I'm getting somebody's water and maybe my optimism was a bit premature. Let's see what happens.

1. 1. February 3-4, 1999 - again no water! There was no hurricane, no excessive rains or drought, no unusually strong earthquake... We have had unusually low temperatures in the last few days before we lost our water.
   

2. February 18-19, 1999. No water for at least 36 hours. No apparent reason, no explanation.
   
3. February 21, 1999. No water since 6 pm, perhaps earlier, until about 6 am the next day. No reason, no explanation, I have no comment.
   
4. April 22, 1999. No water in the whole Mayaguez area since Thursday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. Even the University was closed and classes suspended on Friday. People say that the main pipes supplying water to the area were broken. Since Sunday we had some breaks in water supply several times for a week.
   
5. June 14-15, 1999. No water for 1.5 days. Interestingly, we first lost the cable TV (on Friday, June 11). Then we lost water. On June 15 both water and cable came back. I'm trying to figure out what is the relationship of cable TV to water. The only explanation I can see is they probably use the same pipes.
   
6. June 16-17, 1999. No water, again for about 1.5 days. This time cable TV is OK. Looks like they don't use the same pipes after all.
   
7. July 11, 1999. Water disappeared about noon, came back Tuesday afternoon (July 13, about 5 pm). That was more than 2 days. To make it clear - no hurricane, tropical storm, tropical depression, even no strong tropical wave. Also no earthquake. Again the cable TV is OK, but the Internet stopped working on Campus Friday night and was not working until Monday late morning. Coincidence, or water company and the Internet are using the same pipes?
   
8. August 20 - September 5, 1999. There was no water several times, mostly for a few hours each time.
   
9. September 7, 1999. Water disappeared for about 24 hours. This time we know why - a sensor in our building thought there was no water in the city pipes and shut down water to preserve the contents of our tank.

 

Hortense - 10 September, 1996

Remember hurricane Hortense on September 10, 1996? This satellite picture of Hortense was taken at 7:15 a.m. local time, just after Hortense passed over Puerto Rico.

You can also see an animated track of Hortense.

Archive of AOR Satellite Pictures

This archive contains hundreds of satellite pictures taken by the satellite GOES-8 in infrared (so one can see clouds also at night). Pictures are taken twice every hour: 15 minute past and 15 minutes before full hour and added to the archive almost immediately (if you are lucky, you may see a picture taken just a few minutes ago).
When you go to this archive, you will see a large table with file names. To view the latest picture, select the first file from the list. File names contain information when pictures were taken.
Example: file 10130345.gif
First two digits: month (10 here)
Next two digits: day of the month (13 here)
Last four digits: hour when the picture was taken (here 03:45), always in 24-hour format, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, also often called Universal Time, UT, or Universal Coordinated Time, UTC). Puerto Rico is 4 hours behind GMT, so 03:45 on October 13 mean 23:45 (that is 11:45 p.m.) on October 12, 1998.
Now go there and have a look.