More gusty winds and thunderstorms have been predicted for today, says meteorologist Saide Shakeer. In a telephone interview yesterday, Shakeer said yesterday’s bad weather, which uprooted trees and tore roofs off houses, was part of a thunderstorm caused by a weak tropical wave passing over the Lesser Antilles. The rainfall and strong winds came after one of the hottest days for the year on Wednesday which was just over 34 degrees celsius.
The country’s record high temperature is just over 37 degrees celsius. Shakeer said there had been a wind surge over the country for some time, which meant there was an increase in lower level winds (under 10,000 feet) in the atmosphere. She said the country experienced downdrafts of winds from thundershowers yesterday and those two factors resulted in the bad weather experienced in parts of the country. “The thundershowers were from a weak tropical wave which passed over the islands this morning (yesterday). We didn’t have severe rainfall. The most significant part of the weather we experienced was the strong winds,” Shakeer said.
Yesterday’s winds measured 37 mph at Piarco though Shakeer said it could have been higher in other parts of the country. She said the tropical wave was a normal rainy season feature which the country experienced weekly. “Because the wind surge is still over us, we expect the same type of weather tonight (last night) into tomorrow (today).”