SPI Monitor March 2014
Discussion
March 2014
Normal to below normal conditions prevailed in the islands of the eastern Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago were moderately dry; Grenada, Barbados, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica and St. Croix normal; Antigua and Anguilla abnormally dry; St. Kitts and St. Maarten exceptionally dry. Guyana was normal to abnormally wet. Puerto Rico was moderate to severely dry. Jamaica was abnormally wet, while Grand Cayman was moderately wet. Apart from east central areas that were abnormal to moderately wet, Cuba was normal. Conditions in Belize ranged from severely dry in the west to moderately wet in the north and to moderately dry in the south.
January 2014 to March 2014
Rainfall for the first quarter of 2014 varied across the eastern Caribbean and Guyana to reveal a normal to above normal south and normal to below normal north. Trinidad, Tobago, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Anguilla were normal; Grenada and Barbados moderately wet; Dominica and St. Maarten abnormally dry; Antigua and St. Croix moderately dry; St. Kitts severely dry; and Guyana abnormally wet in the west and normal in the east. Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Belize were predominantly normal, but Grand Cayman was abnormally wet. Though the majority of Cuba was moderately wet, conditions ranged from normal to extremely wet.
October 2013 to March 2014
For the six month period, the eastern Caribbean and Guyana experienced diverse conditions. Trinidad was moderate to very wet; Tobago, Barbados, St. Maarten and St. Croix normal; Grenada moderately wet; St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Anguilla abnormally wet; Dominica, Antigua and St. Kitts abnormally dry; and Guyana moderately wet in the west and abnormally wet in the east. Conditions in Puerto Rico ranged from moderately wet in the west to normal in the east, but Jamaica was normal to abnormally dry. Grand Cayman was abnormally wet. Conditions in Cuba ranged from exceptionally wet in the west to moderately dry in the east, while those in Belize ranged from exceptionally wet in the west to moderately wet in the north and south.
April 2013 to March 2014
Apart from St. Kitts that was abnormally dry, the eastern Caribbean and Guyana were normal to above normal for the twelve month period. Trinidad was very to extremely dry; Tobago, Grenada, St. Vincent, Antigua, St. Maarten and Anguilla normal; Barbados, St. Lucia and Dominica moderately wet; St. Croix abnormally wet; and Guyana very wet in the west and moderately wet in the east. Puerto Rico was exceptionally wet. Jamaica was abnormally dry in the west and normal in the east, but Grand Cayman was abnormally wet. Conditions in Cuba ranged from exceptionally wet in the west to extremely dry in the east, while in Belize they ranged from exceptionally wet in the west to extremely wet in the north and to moderately wet in the south.
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.
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.
