April 23, 2005 –– The worst of the rainy weather is over, but the territory will continue to see showers throughout Saturday and into Sunday.
"We expect it to start to clear by tomorrow," Brad Diehl, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Juan, said Saturday at 10 a.m.
The rain began Friday night with a thunder and lightning show.
Diehl said that radar estimates indicated four to 4.5 inches of rain fell on St. Thomas between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday. He said an estimated five to six inches fell on St. Croix during the same period, but he said that figure may be a bit on the low side because of a radar shadow.
At Weather Station Zephyr in Coral Bay, St. John, a total of 2.44 inches of rain fell from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday. At 8 p.m. Friday, it was raining at 9.6 inches per hour, the heaviest rainfall for the 12-hour period.
Diehl said that at 10 a.m. the most rainfall activity was east of the Virgin Islands.
"There are widespread showers 70 miles east of St. Thomas," he said.
He said the moisture is coming up from the south.
Residents were delighted to hear their cisterns fill and watch the foliage turn green almost before their eyes.
"I think it's great," St. John resident Kathy Damon said.
She said she'd rather get water from Mother Nature than the water truck.
"It's a lot cheaper," she said.
She said she got 4 inches of rain between Friday and Saturday.
On St. Croix one group was not happy – Saturday morning golfers. Buccaneer Golf Course had to close in the morning because of flooding. Course Pro Tim Johnson said, if no more rain fell, the course could be open in the afternoon.
Also, it was reported that because of the weather, the Democratic Territorial meeting on St. Thomas on Saturday was cancelled.
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