Expert: Michael - 4/17/2006

Question
Hello Michael!  My fiance' has just informed me of my birthday present. We're going on a cruise in Bermuda!  This will be our first vacation together. A friend of ours is setting it all up and I do have a concern....the weather. The trip is planned for the first week of September. We're leaving on the 3rd, Sunday (Labor Day weekend) and retuning Friday.  I am worried about hurricane season on the water and also what kind of tempratures we will be experiencing in Bermuda.

Thank you in advance for your expertise!

Michelle DiCicco

Answer
Dear Michelle,

Happy Birthday!  What a wonderful B-day gift.  I dare say it will be the best you ever had.

September is a beautiful month.  Linda and I have chosen to return again the week before you arrive.  The weather will be superlative.  Air temps should run in the upper 80's and the sea surface temperature shall be low eighties.  The hibiscus, oleander, and bermudiana will be in full bloom.  Ciscadas will be singing for you and tree frogs will serenade you in the evening.

Over a fifty year mean the ocean surface temperature has been recorded at 81.2F.  These immediate past five years have seen a record 85F.  How much of it has to do with global warming I couldn't say.  But there you have it.

As for the air temperature the fifty year mean has shown an average high of 83.8F with a low of 74.3F.  However, the past five years have recorded September 2 at 87F, 87F, 89F, 88F and 90F.

You go girl.  This is spectacular by anyones standards.

As for hurricane season I would not fret.  I cannot predict the future but can tell you that hurricane season begins in June and ends in November.  Logically thinking Michelle, if hurricane season was a problem then nobody in their right minds would ever take the chance to go.  Because the Gem of the Atlantic is situated off the coast of Cape Hatteras, 1000 miles north of the Bahamas and perhaps double that from where hurricanes begin, I guess you could say that it is a long shot that Bermuda is earmarked for hurricanes.  Bermuda is a 21 square mile dimple in the North Atlantic.

Later in the season the North Atlantic can get trecherous.  That's one reason why cruising ends a month or two after your cruise.  Don't worry. You'll be all right as far as that is concerned.

Do enjoy.  It is a trip to very much look forward to without concern of hazardous weather.

Happy planning!
Michael