Weatherman: Expect less April showers

It’s 14 days into the month of March and rainfall has been measured close to 100 mm, which is almost 66 mm more than average. In January, the T&T Meteorological Service forecast a wet start to the dry season, with slightly more rainfall for the first eight weeks in the year.

Rainfall for January was measured at 104.7 mm and 59.8 mm in February, and the averages for those months are 71.2 mm and 43.0 mm respectively. Yesterday, director of the Meteorological Services Division Emmanuel Moolchan said next month is expected to be drier. He said the average rainfall for April was 51.1 mm, but anticipated it would be lower. Moolchan said a combination of systems affected weather conditions.

Last month’s recorded 59.8 mm of rainfall was almost 80 mm lower than the year before. In 2010, however, the recorded rainfall for February was 2.1 mm, followed by 4.4 mm in March. That was the year the country experienced harsh dry -season conditions. In an interview yesterday, Moolchan said the Bermuda Azores high-pressure system was influencing the weather conditions and that low level troughs passing by were causing instability.

He said one important benefit of the unusually wet dry season was the absence of bush fires. “The mountain ranges and hills are allowed to replenish themselves. Lush forest areas are good.” he said. He added it was good for dams and reservoirs. The general manager of corporate communications at the Water and Sewerage Authority, Ellen Lewis, said all reservoirs were at their capacity.

In January 2011 rainfall measured 187.9 mm and in 2010 it measured 176.6 mm. The rainfall for February in 2011 was 145.5 mm and in 2010 it was 2.1 mm. Last year, March rainfall was 27.6 mm and the year before it was 4.4 mm. Moolchan also gave an early forecast for the hurricane season, which starts on June 1. He said there were expected to be about 10-12 storms for the season in the North Atlantic.