Met Service issues thunderstorm alert, south Trinidad faces brunt of system

THE Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service has issued a yellow-level thunderstorm alert, from 8 am on Sunday until Tuesday at 2 pm. And south Trinidad is likely to experience the brunt of the system.

A release on Friday said there is a 60 to 70 per cent, medium to high chance of thunderstorm activity. It also said rain and showers of “varying intensities”, gusty winds in excess of 55 km/hr and localised flooding are “highly likely”, with the strongest impact expected on Sunday and Monday.

Last week several farmers lost about 60 acres of crops owing to heavy rainfall that flooded their land. This led over 100 farmers to call for compensation.

Met Service meteorologist Kiran Sedoo told Newsday that although the anticipated weather system is expected to affect all of Trinidad and Tobago, farmers in south Trinidad may be more strongly impacted.

“With conditions especially in south Trinidad that would have received considerable rainfall over the past couple of weeks, some of those soils may be still waterlogged so the anticipated rainfall that we expect could exacerbate the conditions and the situation there.

“So, it may have more impactful effects there as opposed to other areas of Trinidad that didn’t receive as much rainfall.”

The Met Service advised the public to monitor weather conditions and updates from its office via www.metoffice.gov.tt and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management via www.odpm.gov.tt.