News
Intensified bad weather coming
(August 20, 2012)
Next two weeks could be the most intense for hurricane season say experts.BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Monday, August 20, 2012 – The respected Colorado State University Department of Atmospheric Science is predicting that the next two weeks could see intense climate activity at 130% above average.
They have attributed this prediction to forecasts going as far back as 1950, which consistently show an escalation in accumulated cyclone energy between August 17 and 30.
And, as if right on cue, weather forecasters have been warning the Caribbean island chain of a series of tropical weather systems that are currently barrelling across the Atlantic, with the possibility that one might escalate right up to hurricane grade.
The storm is picking up speed as initial forecasts were for it to move through the Lesser Antilles Thursday afternoon, which was later revised to early Thursday morning, but now residents and vacationers in the Leeward Islands are being advised to prepare for tropical storm conditions during the day Wednesday. Similarly, those in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are being warned that they could face tropical storm conditions during Wednesday night. The system, which is expected to become Tropical Storm Isaac, is expected to affect Jamaica on Saturday.
Forecasters also estimate that the system has a 65 per cent chance of becoming a hurricane before it hits the Caribbean. Once it intensifies.
While forecasters monitor that system’s development, hot on its heels another disturbance has formed off the Cape Verde Islands and this eastern Atlantic tropical wave already looks like it is developing cyclonic features.