Hurricane? Key Largo diving?

[gr8jab]

Hey all you in the Keys.... I'm going to be there the week of the Oct 9th, about 10 days from now. Hurricane Matthew is coming across Cuba and up through the Bahamas early next week. Looks like it could be as close as 100mi, and as far as 600mi.

I had lived in Florida long enough to learn anything can happen, but have no experience with diving conditions wrt storms. How close before it can impact diving? Am I SOL already? Does it take days or weeks for things to settle down?

Thanks.

 

[The Chairman]

Usually a day or two if it passes within 100 miles. I just heard about it up here in Cave Country... so I'm not sure what it looks like yet.

 

[gr8jab]

Hey!!! that's good news. Just hoping it doesn't blow out our whole week. CU then!

 

[Dewayne74]

I'm heading there tomorrow. Supposed to dive Sunday through Friday. Kind of worried I will not get to dive as much as I was hoping next week.

 

[LandonL]

Keep a good watch on the projected trajectory, the path may change. Which could affect things for better or worse.

 

[The Chairman]

Cuba does a good job of protecting the Keys. Their mountains seem to steer these storms east or west around us. Not always, but the last hurricane to hit Key Largo directly was in the 1930s.

 

[sheeper]

you can expect that next tuesday and wednesday will be a tad messy in the keys. The storm track models curve it away and north into the eastern Bahamas by wednesday. BUT the models track this as a major cat 4 storm. So it will likley have fairly broad and wide ranging impacts. Keep and eye on the NHC (www.hurricanes.gov) and www.flhuricane.com for some insights. My "day job" is in the emergency management/public safety sector in south florida so we are watching this very closely

 

[Dewayne74]

Thanks for the information guys. Hopefully it stays far enough away to have little impact on diving this next week.

 

[gr8jab]

Dewayne74, how's it looking? I fear that Wed-Fri might be questionable for you. Have you gotten any diving in so far?

I'm arriving on Saturday, and it should be up by South Carolina by then. I wonder how Sunday diving at BHB will be. Any guess if it will impact the swells down in Key Largo the rest of that week? I don't know how far away before it will let things settle down.

 

[Steve_C]

Since you are from Oregon a dip in warmer lower viz water might be of interest it the boats are blown out. You can usually go play in Jules. Or if you get really desperate and easily amused like I do you can dive Canon beach. I have seen lobster, tarpon, a variety of snappers and some other stuff at CB. Neither are a coral reef but both more amusing, at least to me, than a quarry some where.