Heavy rains, plenty flooding

However, it was not a surprise as the Meteorological Office at Piarco had issued an advisory stating heavy showers and subsequent flooding and landslides were expected.

Meteorologist II Paula Wellington said the rainfall was attributed to intense heat experienced earlier in the morning and light winds which caused convected clouds to build on the western part of Trinidad.

“What we saw in Trinidad has nothing to do with TS Don.

He is located to the north east of Tobago and is moving west and as it traverses west, the islands would start getting cloudier and we can have heavy showers and possible thunder showers because of the fringes of Don,” Wellington said.

“We are not under any tropical storm watch or warning at this time, but we are still going to feel the effects of the fringes of the system.

The area is moist and unstable because of the presence of the storm, the light winds and the intense temperatures we had in the morning. With hot air...when there is a breeze it does not rise and builds into taller clouds.

“However, when the wind is light the ground gets hot with the intense heating and the clouds build and can build very tall. When that happens we can get thunder showers or thunder clouds forming. You get your heavy showers, lightning, thunder and gusty winds. With the tall clouds there is a lot of moisture in there which would result in heavy rains which would cause street and flash flooding,” Wellington explained.

She said because the more industrial areas were located to the western part of the island there would be greater heating in that area and that was where the thunderclouds would build.

By early yesterday evening, TS Don made his presence felt as he approached from the west with the outer fringes bringing cloudy systems, accompanying the already dark clouds and heavy rains. With the system being so close it spurred thunder shower activities and flooding in some areas including Maraval, Diego Martin and in most of Central and Southern Trinidad.