Met Office: Wet Season hasn't started

Despite adverse weather conditions on Sunday and Monday, the Meteorological Service said the wet season has not yet started.

In an email to Newsday, the Met Service said TT is in a period of transition from the dry season into the wet season.

“The official start to the wet season is marked by measurable rainfall produced by a tropical wave and/or the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), both of which are the main weather-producing features of TT’s wet season. When this occurs, the TT Meteorological Service will issue an official statement to declare the start of the wet season.”

The Met Office described what caused the rain last weekend, which caused many to speculate that the season had begun.

“The weather conditions from Sunday into Monday were caused by an area of low pressure to the north-northeast of the Lesser Antilles, along with a trough in the mid-levels at our latitude, working together to draw lots of equatorial moisture, generally from the south-southwest to southeast, across Trinidad and Tobago and the Lesser Antilles.”

The TT wet season normally runs from June to December. The UWI St Augustine has warned that this season could be dry to dryer than normal, with the potential for stronger than usual hurricanes, due to a predicted El Niño event.