Tropical system being monitored
Tue, 09/27/2016 - 12:00am
Barbados for the past couple days have been experiencing scorching weather with temperatures as high as 32 degrees Celsius.
With the Caribbean still to expect a few more systems during the hurricane season, weather forecasters and emergency preparedness teams are presently monitoring a system in the Atlantic ocean, which may affect the island between today and tomorrow.
This is according to Acting Deputy Director of DEM, Captain Robert Harewood who advised Barbadians to be aware of any weather information being disseminated from his department or the Meteorological Department. He highlighted that Barbadians should not assume because the weather is clear or fair that it meant that the island would not be affected by bad or unstable weather conditions. Currently, the DEM has an active social media via Facebook where hurricane preparedness tips have been posted along with an up-to-date list of hurricane shelters for 2016-2017. Captain Harewood also asked that Barbadians listen to official reports from the Met Office and the media as well as visit the DEM website and the barbadosweather.org website to see live radar captured there.
Director of the Barbados Meteorological Services, Hampden Lovell issued a weather statement at 12 noon yesterday indicating that they were currently “monitoring the process of a strong tropical wave about 780 miles or 1255 km to the east of Barbados. The system is moving towards the west-northwest at about 23 to 29 mph/37 to 47 km/h, with an accompanying area of low pressure centred (sic) along the wave axis near 9N 46W”.
According to the meteorological statement, Barbadians can expect unstable weather, “3 to 5 inches of rain", “moderate to heavy showers, periods of rain, thunderstorms and gusty winds are expected” and high seas with “swells of 4 to 5 metres” and storm force gusts of 39 miles per hour between late Tuesday into Wednesday. The Meteorological services have asked that residents continue to monitor the progress of the system. If the system develops into a hurricane, it would be the 13th named disturbance for 2016.