An official of the Hydrometeorological Department of Guyana yesterday said unpredictable weather patterns were the reason why no warning was issued prior to Thursday’s record 7.32 inches of rainfall, which resulted in flooding of the capital city and coastal areas.
Meteorological officer Julian Francois stated that the department would get charts and updates every six hours from which weather predictions are made.
However, he said, the recent rainfall had been “unusual” from what had been expected.
“The amount of rain that fell, we did not expect that amount, particularly in regions 4 and 5,” Francois said.
According to the official, most of the rainfall for the wet season had been expected to occur in regions 1 and 2. However, a high-pressure system intensified and cause a southern shift to regions along the coast.
“The atmosphere changes all the time; between 1, 2 hours it changes all the time and sometimes it’d be difficult, because of the weather dynamics, to be that accurate,” Francois said.
He went on, “We could say that we’re going to have rainfall but specifically the amount of rainfall? That would be the problem.
The dynamics of the atmosphere…changes so rapidly so things could happen. So to tell somebody we gonna have 200mm of rainfall, it is somewhat difficult.” This, he said, was a margin of error.
According to Francois, rainfall is expected to continue for the next two days, primarily in the coastal area.
He said that though there will be less rainfall than what had been seen over the past few days, most of the rainfall with occur in regions 1 to 4.
“I don’t think we will have that amount of rainfall in the next 2 to 3 days,” Francois said. According to the official, rainfall is expected to be between 0mm and 60mm in regions 1 to 6 while other regions can expect rainfall between 0mm and 20mm.
Above normal high tide is in effect until Thursday November 27 and residents of coastal, low-lying areas were advised to take necessary precautions against possible flooding.
The HydroMet office will be making these weather advisories available through various media.
On Thursday, the HydroMet office reported 186mm (7.32 inches) of rainfall occurred over a 24-hour period, exceeding the 166.1mm (6.53 inches) of rainfall that contributed to the Great Flood of 2005.
