Name tropical waves

But we must also accept that some of the main causes of flooding in this country are manmade and stem from uncleaned drains, polluted rivers and our attitude towards garbage dumping.

Sadly, despite all the new technology and millions of dollars spent to fund the relevant government offices, like the Met Office, we never know when bad weather is coming our way.

The Met Offices in other countries can warn in advance of severe weather, days in advance, and put measures in place to reduce any potential disaster, as was witnessed recently in Florida with the pending arrival of Hurricane Matthew.

Our weather people always come after the event with some long-winded, razzmatazz explanation about an ITCZ and midday heating in the upper level mixing with an upper level trough etc. The reality is should something major come our way, we will know nothing until it’s on us; and then it’s every man or woman for him/herself as few, if any, know of any evacuation plan.

Maybe the time has come for us to go to the extreme and have our Met Office start giving every tropical wave a name so we can finally start formulating and implementing plans to deal with severe weather.

Lucky for us we just have to deal with rain and sun.

C PETERS via email