Kalain Ho­sein

As Trop­i­cal Storm Bret nears the Less­er An­tilles, St. Lu­cia is now un­der a trop­i­cal storm warn­ing, while Mar­tinique, Do­mini­ca and Bar­ba­dos re­main un­der a trop­i­cal storm watch. A Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing means that trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions are ex­pect­ed some­where with­in the warn­ing area with­in 36 hours. A Trop­i­cal Storm Watch means that trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions are pos­si­ble with­in the watch area, in this case with­in the next 24 to 48 hours.

For Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice says, “The TTMS wish­es to un­der­score that this sys­tem pos­es no im­me­di­ate threat to Trinidad, To­ba­go, Grena­da and its De­pen­den­cies.”

Ac­cord­ing to the Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­tre’s (NHC) 11 AM ad­vi­so­ry the cen­ter of Trop­i­cal Storm Bret was lo­cat­ed near lat­i­tude 13.0 North, lon­gi­tude 52.5 West. Bret is mov­ing to­ward the west near 22 KM/H and this gen­er­al mo­tion with an in­crease in for­ward speed is ex­pect­ed dur­ing the next sev­er­al days. On the fore­cast track, the cen­ter of Bret is ex­pect­ed to ap­proach the Less­er An­tilles on Thurs­day, move across the Less­er An­tilles late Thurs­day and Thurs­day night, and then move west­ward across the east­ern and cen­tral Caribbean Sea Fri­day and Sat­ur­day.

They added that max­i­mum sus­tained winds are near 95 KM/H with high­er gusts. The NHC says, “Some in­crease in strength is fore­cast be­fore Bret reach­es the Less­er An­tilles. Weak­en­ing is ex­pect­ed by Fri­day once Bret moves over the Caribbean Sea, and the sys­tem is like­ly to dis­si­pate on Sat­ur­day.”

Trop­i­cal-storm-force winds ex­tend out­ward up to 95 kilo­me­tres from the cen­ter with the es­ti­mat­ed min­i­mum cen­tral pres­sure is 1001 mil­libars.

The NHC says trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions are ex­pect­ed with­in the warn­ing area and pos­si­ble with­in the watch ar­eas late Thurs­day and Thurs­day night.

When it comes to rain­fall, through Sat­ur­day, storm to­tal rain­fall amounts of 3 to 6 inch­es (75 to 150 mm) with max­i­mum amounts of 10 inch­es (250 mm) are pos­si­ble across por­tions of the Less­er An­tilles from Guade­loupe south to St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines, in­clud­ing Bar­ba­dos. The heavy rain­fall could lead to flash flood­ing, es­pe­cial­ly across ar­eas of high­er ter­rain. Ur­ban flood­ing is al­so pos­si­ble.

The NHC al­so warns that swells gen­er­at­ed by Bret are ex­pect­ed to be­gin af­fect­ing por­tions of the Less­er An­tilles on Thurs­day. These swells are like­ly to cause life-threat­en­ing surf and rip cur­rent con­di­tions.