SPI Monitor February 2010
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.
