April 14, 2008 — A disturbed area of weather over the Virgin Islands brought clouds and rain Monday, causing Seaborne Airlines to cancel flights and forcing the postponement of a Senate committee meeting.
The weather should start to clear by Tuesday morning, but until then residents will see more rain, clouds and possibly thunderstorms, said Brian Sealey, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Juan.
"There will be a tail of lingering moisture into tomorrow," he said.
At Weather Station Zephyr, overlooking Coral Bay at Ajax Peak, 0.32 inches of rain fell between midnight and noon Monday. It more than doubled the amount of rain for the entire month of April.
It seemed to be "raining a tad" on St. Thomas around 1:30 p.m., observed Steve Parris, acting director of the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency.
With the lack of precipitation recently, the rainy weather is welcome, he said. Cisterns are filling and the landscape is sure to green up.
"I'm sure everyone's blessing the fact that it's raining," Parris said. "This is definitely needed." Parris said he had no reports of any problems on St. Thomas due to the rain.
Jacqueline Heyliger, deputy director at VITEMA on St. Croix, also reported no problems on her island.
It rained in the morning there, but when contacted around 1:30 p.m. she said it had stopped.
While residents might be happy about the rain, visitors probably weren't so pleased. There isn't much for visitors to do in V.I. National Park when it rains, so they flock to the Visitors' Center, said Paul Thomas, chief of interpretation at the park on St. John.
"They ask, 'When is it going to stop raining?'" he said.
The rainy weather did cause one cancellation: The Legislature's Education, Culture and Youth Committee called off its 10 a.m. meeting at Earle B. Ottley Legislative Chambers on St. Thomas because senators couldn't fly from St. Croix to make up a quorum. The meeting was rescheduled for June 4 at the same location, according to Hectito Francis of the Legislature's Media Services.
Senators couldn't get from St. Thomas to St. Croix because Seaborne Airlines had to cancel some of its flights. When conditions opened up on St. Thomas they closed on St. Croix and vice-versa, said Chief Executive Officer Omer ErSelcuk.
"It's a big chess game," he said.
Low clouds and rain created poor visibility, ErSelcuk said. Customers can rebook for flights Tuesday.
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