A November Norte

I'm currently in a small fishing village called Chelem on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. A few days after getting here we had a storm called a norte lasting 36+ hours. These storms are not as destructive as hurricanes but can still cause some damage. Electrical service went down during the first day of the storm around 6:30 am and finally started coming back on intermittently around 7:30 pm that night. Full service finally came back sometime during the middle of that night. As the power was coming and going an electrical surge took out my modem leaving me without an internet connection for a few more days.

During this norte we had sustained winds in the 25 to 30 mph range with gust up in the 35 mph range. Not bad when compared to a hurricane but these winds can really have an impact when they are continuous for this long straight.

Here's a video looking down Calle 15 (Calle is street in spanish) which runs parallel with the coast having a row of house to buffer some of the winds from the street.

To me the video didn't capture the intensity of the storm, maybe because the gusts were not that much stronger than the sustained winds. Here's a video looking down the other street, Calle 110. Calle 110 is perpendicular to the beach so the winds off the gulf come full force down the street with no buffering from the beach houses.

In the video, the small tree in the foreground didn't survive the pounding from the norte. I don't feel bad about the tree, I was thinking of getting rid of it anyway. The winds coming down this street pick up spray from the Gulf waves and blows it down the street for hundreds of yards. Mixed with any sand the winds may pick up it becomes a real mess.

Compared to hurricanes, nortes while not being as strong are actually much larger in size. These winds originate in the U.S. and even Canada gradually increasing in speed as the air warms and expands. When we in the U.S. experience an artic blast during the winter it's a good chance the Mexico will be recieving a norte in the next couple of days. This photo shows a depiction of the winds in this November norte.

These storms may or may not have rain associated with them. This one did, we had rain here off and on for almost three days. This was actually a good thing, in nortes without rain the winds pick up the smallest sand particles and fill the air with them. You can here the sand pelting the windows and it always seems to find a way into the house.

There are some good things about nortes. Typically they bring slightly cooler weather. This storm took daytime temperatures from the low 90's to the low to mid 80's. Nortes also get rid of the mosquitoes that have been building in population all summer. I don't think it gets cold enough to kill them, maybe they just get blown to the south in the winds. For store and restaurant owners, those cold winds from the north creating the nortes get the snow birds up north flying and driving south bringing in more potential customers.