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Monday, September 10, 2018

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados-based Caribbean Drought and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN) is urging regional countries to monitor water resources amid concerns that parts of the Caribbean continue to experience below normal rainfall.

CDPMN, which was launched in January 2009 under the Caribbean Water Initiative (CARWIN) to support equitable and sustainable Integrated Water Resources Management, said that concerns over short term drought that can impact cropping, and small rivers and lakes, continues over northwest Belize. It said there is some chance that long term drought, which can impact large water resources and groundwater reserves, can impact Antigua and the Cayman Islands by the end of the wet season and urged that 'this situation should be monitored”.

CDPMN, which is led by the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), the World Meteorological Organisation's Regional Climate Centre (RCC) for the Caribbean, said that apart from Guadeloupe that ranged from severely dry to moderately wet, normal to below normal rainfall dominated the situation in the islands of the eastern Caribbean, Trinidad, St Kitts, and St Thomas.

It said some of the Caribbean islands like Tobago, Grenada and Barbados experienced dry to severe to exceptionally dry periods during the months of May, June and July, while St Vincent, St Lucia and Martinique had moderate to severely dry weather conditions.

Dominica was slight to moderately dry while conditions in the Guiana's ranged from moderately dry in northern portions of Guyana and Suriname to exceptionally wet in northern parts of Guyana and eastern French Guiana.

“Aruba and Curacao were normal. Conditions in Puerto Rico ranged from severely dry in the west to normal in the east; while Hispaniola ranged from exceptionally dry to normal. Jamaica ranged from slight to severely dry, while Grand Cayman was exceptionally dry,” the CDPMN said in its latest Caribbean Drought Bulletin released here on Monday.