TT gets rainy, rainy season

This information was revealed by the Colorado State University and the William Gray National Hurricane Centre in the United States.

Meantime, in Trinidad and Tobago, Director Willis Mills of the Meteorological (MET) Office at Piarco told Newsday that Trinidad and Tobago is rarely affected because the two islands are located at the southern edge of the hurricane belt, although last year, Hurricane Ivan, a Class Four storm, caused a scare and did some damage to both islands.

Ivan also devastated Grenada, depleting the island’s major source of income, the nutmeg industry. It also took out the electricity, and affected the island’s clean water supply and food. Hurricane Ivan took 52 lives in the United States and 77 in the Caribbean, including one in Tobago. The name Ivan will not be used again and will be replaced by Igor.

The MET office also noted that there would be an above average rainfall during this year’s rainy season, which started May 5.

Glendell DeSousa, assistant director, said the forecast is based on a precipitation forecast algorithm, which predicts weather for the next three months.

"Weather is now, and it is based on climatology," he said.

"After the rainy season began May 5, we saw the first tropical wave and rain in Trinidad and Tobago," said DeSousa.

He said the rainy season never begins on the same day, and a statistical analysis is done to predict an average with dates from the past years.

"The rainy season always starts in May, and our forecast is for the months of May, June and July," he said. "July is the wettest month."

He said the dry season was drier than normal, the exception being the first 21 days of January which were very wet.