Hurricane and Rainy Season Coming to a Quiet End

Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean basin (which includes the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico) comes to an end in a few days (November 30) as does the rainy season in the Riviera Maya. September, October and November are typically the wettest months of the year and August, September and October have the highest chance for a tropical storm or hurricane strike.

This year there have only been 6 hurricanes and 2 tropical storms in the Atlantic basin (see NHC for details). There are normally about 6 hurricanes and a total of about 11 named storms. So there were about the normal number of hurricanes but fewer total named storms than normal. And there was only one other tropical depression that did not turn into a tropical storm or hurricane.  So really a pretty quiet hurricane season. 

There were no hurricanes near the Riviera Maya.  There were only 2 tropical cyclone systems to impact the Riviera Maya.  

The first was when Tropical Storm Dolly formed in the Gulf of Campeche to the west of the Yucatan Peninsula and brought some rain (up to a few inches in a few locations) to the Riviera Maya before it went inland to central Mexico. 

Then Tropical Depression Nine passed over the southern Yucatan Peninsula from west to east (somewhat unusual) on October 22-23.  It brought mainly heavy rain and some gusty winds.  The total rain from Tropical Depression Nine was over 6 inches in Puerto Aventuras (see graphic below with dates of interest in the red oval), over 5 inches in Isla Mujeres, over 7 inches in Cancun, and over 5 inches in Cozumel. 

Rain for the September through November time period has been slightly below normal in Puerto Aventuras, with just a few episodes of multiple day heavy rains (as seen in the graphic above).  It has been quite dry the whole month of November.  

As the graphic below shows, Cancun had a similar rain pattern as Puerto Aventuras. Both graphics show that it only rained on about one-third of the days in September through November.  Normally it rains on almost half the days during this time of year.

So we can be thankful that the hurricane and rainy season were relatively quiet in the Riviera Maya in 2014.  And we look forward continued beautiful weather in the winter.