SPI Monitor May 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
May 2010
The islands from Dominica northward experienced near normal conditions. Barbados and Guyana also experienced near normal conditions. Southward of Dominica the islands were above normal with Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada being very to extremely wet. The Dominican Republic was near normal. Further to the west, Jamaica experienced moderate to very wet conditions, whilst Belize experienced conditions ranging from near normal in the south to extremely wet in the north. The Cayman Islands was near normal.
March 2009 to May 2010
For the three month period ending May 2010, the majority of the islands of the eastern Caribbean experienced moderately wet conditions. The exceptions to this were Barbados and the islands of the extreme northern Leeward that were near normal for the period; and Trinidad and Tobago that experienced moderate to extremely wet (in Tobago) conditions. Guyana was near normal. Apart from the northwest portion of the country that was moderately dry, the Dominican Republic was near normal. Both Belize and Jamaica were moderate to very wet. Cayman Islands was near normal.
December 2009 to May 2010
For the six month period December 2009 to May 2010, the islands of the eastern Caribbean were near normal with the exception of Barbados, which was moderately dry and St Kitts that was moderately wet. Both Guyana and the Dominican Republic were near normal. Conditions in Jamaica ranged from near normal in the west to very wet in the east. Belize was near normal to moderately wet. The Cayman Islands was near normal.
June 2009 to May 2010
The eastern Caribbean was predominantly near normal with the exception of Grenada that was extremely dry and Barbados that was moderately dry. Guyana ranged from near normal in the west to moderately dry in the east. The Eastern Dominican Republic was moderately dry with the rest of the island being near normal. Both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands experienced near normal conditions. Conditions in Belize ranged from near normal in the south to very wet in the north.
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.
