Hurricanes in the Dominican Republic
Most hurricanes that affect the Caribbean region may make landfall in the United States. As a consequence, the US National Weather Service closely monitors these storms as they enter the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean benefits from the extensive information available.
The Atlantic Hurricane Season runs 1 June through 30 November. This year, forecasters expect slightly increased probability of major storms in the region and attribute this to the exit of El Niño, the warm-water event in the Pacific Ocean that historically brings drought conditions and limits the formation of hurricanes. El Niño is being replaced by La Niña, which is said to encourage hurricane formation because it reduces the wind shear that tends to rip apart a storm's circulation.
This phenomenon also explains the unusually large number of rain storms that have affected the Caribbean this year.
For a storm to become a hurricane usually takes several days, even weeks. It usually will start as a tropical depression, and then be named once its winds reach tropical storm force. The names for the 2004 hurricanes are Alex, Bonnie, Charley, Danielle, Earl, Frances, Gaston, Hermine, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie and Walter.
An international committee of the World Metereological Organization maintains and updates the list of names that were originated in 1953 by the National Hurricane Center based in Miami, Florida. Six lists of names are rotated. If a hurricane causes considerable damage its name will be removed from the list for reasons of sensitivity. This is the case of hurricanes Inez (1966), Beulah (1967), David and Frederic (1979), Hortense (1996), Georges (1998) and Geanne (2004) that have hit the Dominican Republic in the past 25 years.
Customer Service Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Local Time
TRAVEL TOOLS
DESTINATIONS
Silva Travel Services
Travel Services in Dominican Republic
Tansportation, Taxi, Tours and Travel Services in Dominican Republic
