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I hate to say it, but it’s something we should chat about – our annual dreaded storm season. A tropical wave is forecasted to pass by St. John this week. This is just going to be a rain event, but it made me realize that we should probably do a quick weather forecast recap. So here are the best ways, in my opinion, to keep an eye on the weather in St. John.

First and foremost, you can check out the webcams if you want to see exactly what is happening on St. John in real time. St. John has more than a dozen webcams positioned around the island. There are several at businesses like The Beach Bar and The Windmill Bar. You can check out the ferry dock area by viewing St. John Spice’s Spice Cam or even one that’s positioned on the top of Grande Bay Resort. There are a bunch of villas and condos that have webcams too, like Seredip in Cruz Bay and Villa Circe out in Coral Bay. You can see all of these webcams and more at www.explorestj.com/webcams.

The two apps/websites I swear by are Wunderground and Windy. Wunderground seems to be the most accurate weather forecast app that I have found since moving here over a decade ago. Windy is unbelievable helpful, because it tells you what the current winds are and the wind direction, which is super helpful when planning beach days. But it also allows you to scroll ahead and see what the forecast is for the upcoming days and week. I like to use windy when we have a tropical wave forming, for example. It allows me to look ahead to see if it is forecasted to turn into something I feel we need to keep an eye on.

Now what exactly should you keep an eye on? Africa. Lots of hurricanes and tropical storms begin as systems over near the west coast of Africa. I check out my Living Earth app frequently during this time of year to see if there is anything brewing out there, It’s another very helpful app.

A great website to watch is spaghettimodels.com and myfoxhurricane.com. Both have dozens of radars, forecasts and, of course, the spaghetti models when we have a system to watch. Myfoxhurricane.com also has a page that shows the Saharan dust forecast. This is dust that lifts up from Africa, crosses the Atlantic and clouds up our skies. It’s a very dry air mass, so it prevents hurricanes from forming due to the lack of moisture in the atmosphere. It’s something that I very much welcome this time of year. You can check out that page here. 

There are lots of other sites and social media pages that focus on our weather, but these are the ones that I check out the most. Now fingers crossed that we don’t have a reason to view them!

That’s it for today, folks. Have a great one!

Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Follow Explore STJ on Social Media

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What a wonderful week it’s been! If you’ve been following this blog for the past few months, you are likely familiar with our power issues and the fact that we’ve been having more frequent outages than usual since mid-May. Luckily the outages have been much less frequent over the past several weeks, but I still feel backup power is necessary.

I reached out to ProSolar in the beginning of June. Christy, my wonderful rep, came to our house on June 6th. Ironically enough, she visited during a power outage when I couldn’t even offer her the luxury of flushing a toilet during her visit. How appropriate, right? “You NEED solar,” she said to me with a laugh that day. During that visit, Christy explained how ProSolar offers both leasing and financing options, something the other companies are unable to offer. The other companies I spoke with asked for full payment upfront, which was more than $30,000 – money that I simply do not have set aside after purchasing and remodeling a home last year. ProSolar’s leasing and financing options seemed like a dream.

We opted to lease, because leasing came with full insurance. This means that if, God forbid, a panel blows away, ProSolar will replace it. If a tree falls and takes out my Tesla battery, ProSolar will replace it. Financing comes with a warranty, but not full insurance.

We have a pretty small house, so we only need 10 panels. Ten panels, plus the Tesla battery came out to $235 a month. That’s only about $10 more than what our WAPA bill typically is. It was a no-brainer.

Now are you ready for this? It only took 49 days from the first time Christy and I met to the day that our installation began! That’s a St. John miracle!!!

I was beyond excited when the guys showed up yesterday. I actually hugged a couple of them! Our power issues will soon be in the rearview mirror!

Our install is going to take about two days, so hopefully it will work today. If not, I have no problem waiting until Monday. I am just happy they’re here!

As I said back in June, everyone on St. John should have some sort of backup just in case. If you would like Christy’s number to get more information on adding solar to your home, feel free to email me at jenn@explorestj.com. I am happy to pass along any information I can.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Follow Explore STJ on Social Media

–> www.facebook.com/explorestj

–> www.instagram.com/explorestj

Well folks, it looks like the dreaded experience over at the St. Thomas Airport has potentially just gotten a little worse. Travelers will now have to pass through agriculture prior to boarding. This added step now means that travelers with checked bags have five stops to make before entering the terminal. Travelers with carry on bags now have three stops.

For those of you who’ve traveled from Puerto Rico to the United States, you probably recall having to put all of your bags – luggage and carry ons (backpacks, computer bags, etc.) – on a belt to pass through the agriculture machine. This has been happening at the St. Thomas Airport for about a week, and, according to the Customs agent I spoke with Wednesday, this will continue from here on out.

There’s a thing called APHIS (the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) that prohibits the movement of agriculture products from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to the United States. What they are most concerned about is mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as certain plants such as flowers. This is because these items can potentially bring an invasive pest or disease to the United States.

Click here to view a list of what you can and cannot bring with you when leaving the St. Thomas Airport. 

What Leaving the St. Thomas Airport Now Looks Like

Checked Bags

1. For those of you who are checking bags, your first stop is the airport counter. They will tag your bag, but they will not take it.
2. Next you will go through Customs. They will ask you a few questions like if you are bringing any food, where you are going, where you stayed, etc. Families can go up together.
3. You will then pass through Agriculture. You simply place your bags (all of them) on a belt and retrieve them on the other side.
4. You will drop your bag at the bag drop area.
5. You will go through security.

Carry On Bags Only

1. You will start at Customs. They will ask you a few questions like if you are bringing any food, where you are going, where you stayed, etc. Families can go up together.
2. You will then pass through Agriculture. You simply place your bags (all of them) on a belt and retrieve them on the other side.
3. You will go through security.

Helpful Things to Know 

You can use Global Entry at the St. Thomas airport, although you need to physically have your card with you when you do so. Global Entry is only good for the card holder. You cannot bring anyone along with you. The lane for Global Entry is the far right after you pass through the glass doors when entering the Customs area.

The St. Thomas airport does have precheck. The precheck lane is on the far right after agriculture.

If you are checking a bag, the cutoff time is 90 minutes. After that, they will not allow you to check your bag.

When they tell you to arrive three hours before your scheduled departure, they kind of mean it. The lines can be very long during season, and especially on Saturdays. I try to avoid Saturday travel at all costs. Just my two cents.

That’s it for today everyone. I’ve been looking ahead to winter airfare prices, and it’s looking pretty good! I’ll have more on that soon.

Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Follow Explore STJ on Social Media

–> www.facebook.com/explorestj

–> www.instagram.com/explorestj