Socorro Islands in May-June

[sffrenchman]

Hello:

The Nautilus Explorer is now offering trips to Socorro Islands late in the season (May-June). For those of you who have dived the Socorro islands that late, what are the conditions at this time of the year i.e. visibility, weather, surface conditions etc...Seems that it is a good time to see schooling hammerheads.

Thanks,

 

[Augustus]

I believe nobody was running trips out in late May June because of the worry about tropical storms effecting the trip. Pacific storms begin a little sooner than the Atlantic storms. So I don't think anybody has direct knowledge of the conditions then.

 

[Nautilus Explorer]

Conventional wisdom is that hurricane season runs late May to early November at Socorro. After many years of operating out there, we decided to challenge the basic assumption and do some research in conjunction with the Mexican navy. The results were surprising. Over a 10 year period there were a total of 4 tropical storms in May with a maximum wind strength of 105mph, 3 tropical storms in June with maximum strength of 155 and only 1 storm in the first part of July. In a 6 year period, there was not a single storm before July 10th. Combining this data with the accuracy of modern forecasting, we came to the conclusion that the season could indeed be extended with < 10% probability of encountering just 1 tropical storm prior to July 10th. Given the proximity of the Sea of Cortez as a backup dive site for a couple of days, Captain Mike felt comfortable moving ahead with extending the season to July 9th.

 

[Augustus]

good luck. going to be interesting. i would be more concerned with general weather patterns making things a bit rough.