On Tuesday June 9th, the island’s Senior meteorological Officer (Ag.), Fitzroy Pascal detailed the 2015 hurricane season predictions.
Addressing the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the National Emergency Planning Organization (NEPO), Pascal reported that the Atlantic hurricane season outlook for 2015 is below normal.
According to him, it will include 6-11 named storms, 3-6 hurricanes and up to two major hurricanes.
Pascal says the below normal season can be attributed to El Niño: the warming of the equatorial pacific.
This, the local Meteorological Office believes, can be beneficial to the region since during an El Niño year, the region experiences high wind shear and a storm’s latent heat is focused over a larger area as opposed to a non El Niño year which inhibits the development of tropical cyclones.
The Senior Met Officer explained that the tropical season peaks between late August and early September and continues until the end of November.
He says however, storms like Ana which the region experienced in May this year, can occur beyond the usual hurricane season which began on June 01st.