SPI Monitor February 2010

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Disclaimer

The information contained herein is provided with the understanding that The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology makes no warranties, either expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability of the Outlook. The information may be used freely by the public with appropriate acknowledgement of its source, but shall not be modified in content and then presented as original material.

Discussion

February 2010

In February 2010 most of the eastern Caribbean, from Trinidad in the south to Dominica, experienced extremely dry conditions. Many stations in the eastern Caribbean recorded their lowest rainfall in recorded history. Other eastern Caribbean territories experienced moderately to severely dry conditions except in the vicinity of St. Kitts, which experienced heavy rainfall from a frontal passage over a 24 hour period, but had until the 24th of the month experienced less than 1 mm of rainfall. The eastern portion of Guyana experienced moderately dry conditions. Hispaniola experienced normal to moderately dry conditions. The remainder of the western Caribbean, including Belize, Cayman Islands and Jamaica, was normal.

December 2009 to February 2010

During this three month period, similar to February, from Trinidad to Dominica (except St. Lucia) experienced extremely dry conditions. The remainder of the eastern Caribbean experienced moderately to severely dry conditions except in the vicinity of St. Kitts. The eastern portion of Guyana experienced moderately to extremely dry conditions. As one moved from the west of Jamaica conditions were normal to very wet. The remainder of the Caribbean was normal.

September 2009 to February 2010

From Trinidad to St. Lucia St. Lucia in the eastern Caribbean, extremely dry conditions were experienced during this six month period. North of St. Lucia to Antigua experienced moderately to severely dry conditions. The remainder of the eastern Caribbean was normal. Apart from moderately dry conditions in the eastern Dominican Republic and western Belize, the western portion of the region, including the remainder of Hispaniola and Belize, and Jamaica and Cayman Islands were normal.

March 2009 to February 2010

Apart from the vicinity of Grenada that experienced severely to extremely dry conditions, and central Guyana that was moderately dry, the Caribbean was normal.

The maps produced used SPI values calculated from monthly rainfall totals from land stations and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. Only land station data is used for the eastern Caribbean , described here as from Georgetown Guyana in the south to Anguilla in the north. The Greater (and Western) Antilles is less represented by land stations. However efforts are being made to include more land stations from that part of the region. Note that the severity implied by the index is relative to what is normal for that period of consideration. Normal in the drier season reflects less rainfall than in the wetter season.

SPI Monitor January 2010

/in , /by

Disclaimer

The information contained herein is provided with the understanding that The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology makes no warranties, either expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability of the Outlook. The information may be used freely by the public with appropriate acknowledgement of its source, but shall not be modified in content and then presented as original material.

Discussion

January 2010

In January 2010 most of the eastern Caribbean was normal to moderately dry. The western portion of Trinidad, Grenada, the southern Grenadine islands and Anguilla experienced severely dry conditions. Moving southward from the northern tip of Guyana conditions experienced ranged from normal to extremely dry. To the west, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Belize were generally near normal. Haiti experienced normal to wet conditions during the month.

November 2009 to January 2010

During this three month period the southern islands of the eastern Caribbean experienced severely to extremely dry conditions. In Guyana, similar to the pattern of January, moving southward from the northern portion of the country the experience was normal to extremely dry conditions. Hispaniola, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Belize generally experienced near normal conditions.

August 2009 to January 2010

St. Lucia to Grenada in the eastern Caribbean (including Barbados) experienced severely to extremely dry conditions during this six month period. Antigua experienced moderately dry conditions. As over the preceding two time intervals, experiences southward from the northern tip of Guyana were from near normal to extremely dry. Apart from Belize where experiences ranged from moderately dry in the western portions to extremely wet in the north, the western Caribbean was generally near normal.

February 2009 to January 2009

For the twelve month period, Grenada was extremely dry and the western portion of Trinidad moderately dry. Barbados was also moderately dry and Guyana’s experiences range from normal at the northern tip to severely dry southward. The remainder of the Caribbean was generally near normal.

The maps produced used SPI values calculated from monthly rainfall totals from land stations and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. Only land station data is used for the eastern Caribbean , described here as from Georgetown Guyana in the south to Anguilla in the north. The Greater (and Western) Antilles is less represented by land stations. However efforts are being made to include more land stations from that part of the region. Note that the severity implied by the index is relative to what is normal for that period of consideration. Normal in the drier season reflects less rainfall than in the wetter season.