Here comes the rain

THE RAINY season has officially started. This was confirmed yesterday by Acting Director of the Meteorological Service Glendell De Souza as for the first time for the year Trinidad and Tobago experienced an Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) cloud band.

De Souza explained that the rainy season began early last year, on May 23, and was even earlier this year.  He said the Met Office had a climatological expected date of the third week in May. They arrived at this approximate date by adding all the stat dates and calculating an average date. However, he stressed, this date changed from year to year. He said rainfall recorded at Piarco for January to April was 80.9 mm, while 125.8 mm of rainfall had been recorded at Piarco for the dry season from December to April.

It was the driest period in the 57 year history of the Met Office. There was significantly more rainfall for the same period last year, he claimed, as there was a wet dry season as compared to 2001. Additional statistics indicate that for the period December 2001-April 2002, 705.5 mm of rainfall was recorded at Piarco, while 441.5 mm had been recorded at Piarco for the period January to April 2002. He also said December 2002 had been recorded as the driest ever.