SPI Monitor July 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
July 2010
Grenada, Trinidad, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda were all near normal. Tobago, Barbados and Anguilla were moderately wet, whilst Dominica was very wet and St. Kitts extremely wet. Guyana ranged from normal to the west to very wet in the east. The Dominican Republic was extremely wet. Further west, conditions ranged from extremely wet in the west to near normal in the east. The Cayman Islands was near normal, whilst conditions in Belize were near normal in the west becoming very wet to the north east and south east.
May 2009 to July 2010
For the 3 month period, Guyana, Trinidad and Grenada to the south of the chain, and Antigua and Barbuda and Anguilla to the north were all near normal. St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica were moderately wet. Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Kitts were very wet, whilst Tobago was extremely wet. Apart from the eastern portion that was very wet, the majority of the Dominican Republic was moderately wet. Conditions in Jamaica for the period ranged from extremely wet in the west to moderately wet in the east. The Cayman Islands was near normal, whilst Belize was moderately wet in the west and very wet elsewhere.
February 2009 to July 2009
From Guyana to Grenada along with St. Lucia and Anguilla were near normal. Barbados, St. Vincent and Antigua were moderately wet, whilst Dominica and St. Kitts were very wet. Tobago was extremely wet for the six month period. Apart from the eastern portion that was moderately wet, Dominican Republic was near normal. Jamaica was very wet in the west and moderately wet in the east. Cayman Islands was near normal whilst, apart from the northern tip that was very wet, conditions in Belize were predominantly moderately wet.
August 2009 to July 2010
The twelve month period was extremely dry in Grenada, whilst the remainder of the southern portion of the chain from Guyana to Anguilla were normal. The Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Cayman Islands were all normal for the period, whilst in Belize conditions were moderately dry in the south west to very wet in the north east.
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.
