More rains to follow – Barbados Today

Barbadians are warned to prepare for more heavy showers over the next 48 hours, even as many try to pick up the pieces from Thursday morning’s “Freak Stormâ€.

However, there is no evidence from experts that the terrifying events of damaged houses, fallen trees and interrupted utilities would repeat themselves anytime soon.

In fact, the acting director of Barbados’ Weather Service, Sabu Best, revealed that such a phenomenon had never occurred in the recorded history of the country.

Best explained that the Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) was first discovered 250 miles east-northeast of the island as a small eddy following a relatively weak tropical wave.

He added that while Met Office officials were preparing to issue a severe weather warning, so was the fact that such systems often appear on their radar before they suddenly disappear.

It was then decided to publish the bulletin when the weather report was 25 kilometers from the island.

“These messages would have gone out on our mobile app and also on CAP.CAP [app]. I agree that this news came out while the feature was on our shores, â€Best admitted.

“What is unprecedented here, and what our citizens would like to understand, is that since these functions are inherently very small, they can come up very quickly and go away just as quickly.

“Neither of them actually predicted this, so it was actually our sheer ability to monitor this system all night, actually track it and give the warnings just before it came ashore,” added the meteorologist.

What followed were very heavy downpours of 10 to 15 centimeters of rain, wind speeds of up to 43 kilometers per hour and hundreds of lightning strikes.

The data also showed the existence of a low eddy that fits right into the center of the island.

The phenomenon is so rare that Best’s most recent comparison was the 1995 weather system that claimed the life of Calypsonian De Great Carew in a severe flood in Weston St James.

“I remember it very well because that was when I founded the Met Office and unfortunately Carew was washed away. There was heavy lightning and thunderstorm activity; Lightning flashed every second and that was really intense. But it wasn’t the same setup dynamically. It was different. So if you combine what happened: wind, lightning, heavy rain, really fast and finished in an hour and a half, certainly from my memory and my memory, it is the first time, â€confirmed the meteorologist.

However, Best stated that the land was not out of the woods yet, as tropical waves could be expected almost every three days during the rainy season.

In fact, he added that two are expected to occur late Saturday night into Sunday and another next Tuesday, which could be more dangerous due to the already high humidity in the atmosphere. This type of activity, he said, is expected to continue beyond September.

“… .The work we do with the CIMH. have made [Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology] and our deterministic model runs suggest that we will see more peaks and rainfall, especially in August and September. We have to be ready and prepared for what is to come, â€said Best. ([email protected])

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