Water, Water Everywhere…Since the beginning of the year, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology has been forecasting a more or less normal shift from dry season to wet. However, the forecasters note that “A persistent weak La Nina pattern is expected to persist during the upcoming season, which may drive increasing uncertainty into the seasonal rainfall forecast.” Last week a persistent trough of low pressure stretching from the Bahamas to Honduras brought several days of heavy rain that soaked most of the North Coast. The Meteorological Service Division issued flash flood warnings for Portland, St. Ann, St. Mary, Trelawny and St. James. In fact, flooding has been reported across Jamaica in the last few months. From Kingston to Negril, most parishes have had at least one stretch of undermined or washed-out road that needed repairing. Port Maria still hasn’t fully recovered from the drowning it got in February. Power lines went down, buildings collapsed, a landslide took two lives in St. Andrew and there was a near-miss at Sandy Gully.
April 29, 2022
