Kalain Ho­sein

Gusty winds ac­com­pa­ny­ing an iso­lat­ed thun­der­storm ripped off roofs and downed trees across Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day af­ter­noon.

Tor­ren­tial rain­fall ac­com­pa­nied the strong winds, al­so pro­duc­ing street flood­ing across low­er Port-of-Spain ex­tend­ing as far east as Suc­cess, La­van­tille.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, roofs were blown off in Bel­mont, Pica­dil­ly Street and Sea Lots.

Along In­de­pen­dence Square, mi­nor tree dam­age oc­curred as branch­es were blown off trees which were left scat­tered across the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade. Two large trees fell in Colum­bus Square, one falling on the Christo­pher Colum­bus Stat­ue and an­oth­er across Dun­can Street, block­ing the road­way. Fur­ther north, sev­er­al trees al­so fell across Wood­ford Square, with one falling on an un­oc­cu­pied ve­hi­cle.

Port-of-Spain South MP Keith Scotland, centre, looks at a tree which was felled during high winds on Picadilly Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

OTTO CARRINGTON

Af­ter sur­vey­ing the dam­age, Port-of-Spain May­or Joel Mar­tinez called in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment for added as­si­tance as the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice start­ed the process of clear­ing felled trees across the cap­i­tal.

Mar­tinez said he was con­cerned about the un­usu­al weath­er which had downed trees yes­ter­day. How­ev­er, he not­ed that when there is in­clement weath­er the pos­si­bil­i­ty of fall­en trees was high. He not­ed that the cor­po­ra­tion had a tree prun­ing plan for the squares around the cap­i­tal.

Street flood­ing across Port-of-Spain al­so brought traf­fic to a halt in some ar­eas, with Ed­ward Street and Vieira Street im­pass­able for a pe­ri­od. As quick­ly as the wa­ter rose, it re­ced­ed, but traf­fic along Wright­son Road, East­ern Main Road and the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route re­mained thick through the evening.

Sheets of galvanize hang on a utility pole on Piccadilly Port-of-Spain, after heavy rain and winds in the city yesterday.

OTTO CARRINGTON

What caused this thun­der­storm?

A com­bi­na­tion of day­time heat­ing and sea breeze con­ver­gence trig­gered yes­ter­day’s iso­lat­ed thun­der­storm to de­vel­op across North­west­ern Trinidad.

On days where most­ly hot and sun­ny con­di­tions oc­cur, ex­ces­sive heat caus­es air to rise and when mois­ture is in place, as it did yes­ter­day, show­ers and thun­der­storms de­vel­op. Across west­ern ar­eas of Trinidad, sea breezes from the west col­lid­ed with pre­vail­ing winds from the east. This col­li­sion of air al­lowed for en­hanced con­ver­gence, par­tic­u­lar­ly along west­ern coastal Trinidad.

Usu­al­ly called a “freak storm,” these in­tense winds and rain­fall are as­so­ci­at­ed with nor­mal thun­der­storm ac­tiv­i­ty. While yes­ter­day’s thun­der­storm was noth­ing out of the or­di­nary, a down­burst like­ly oc­curred where tor­ren­tial rain and strong winds were fo­cused in one area and gusty winds moved out ra­di­al­ly, like rip­ples in a pud­dle. This is why when fore­cast­ers warn of thun­der­storms where street flood­ing and gusty winds are pos­si­ble, cit­i­zens should be pre­pared.