Tropical Storm Noel...

Well, its an official tropical storm now. The low pressure system was declared a tropical depression yesterday and was named a tropical storm today. It is located off the southern shore of the island and the last official storm track said that it was "Meandering" generally to the North-Northwest which will take it to the west of us. Its winds are at 60 mph around the center.

Today has been really gray but calm here. We have had our normal trade winds, not the gusty winds that we've had the past couple of days. The rain has also held off and its only sprinkled a few times today.

Here are a couple of maps that will give you a bit more info on where we are. This first map shows you where we are in relation to the US. As you follow the map directly south of Florida to the island of Cuba and then travel almost due east to the next large island, you will find the island of Hispanola. This island is shared by Haiti on the western third and Dominican Republic on the eastern two-thirds.
Here is a more detailed map of DR. We are in cabarete on the north shore (see red box almost directly below the R in Republic.

Here is the latest map of where the storm is located and its estimated track... We've been keeping track of it on NOAA's site {http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_atl.shtml}