Met Office: Heat until October

THE Met Office says the current levels of heat being experienced will continue until October as the country undergoes the "heat season."

Speaking to Newsday on Monday afternoon, senior meteorologist Kaidar Kissoon said typically, the season runs from May-October

He said there are high levels of solar radiation as well as of relative humidity (RH).

"(Normally) when you perspire/sweat, water evaporates. But if the air is already of a high RH...

"And what makes it worse is that this time of the year, you have low wind speed."

In a subsequent notice, the Met Office said the tropical Atlantic Ocean east of TT "has above-normal sea surface temperatures which generally promote warmer trade winds that blow over the islands.

"There was a recent change of phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation from neutral to El Niño phase."

It said El Niño conditions generally suppress cloud development over TT, which in turn results in more direct sunshine.

Therefore, weak easterly to southeasterly winds, strong sunshine and high relative humidity, in developed urban areas and cities combined to produce a hot day, which it defined as maximum temperature ≥34.0 degrees C in Trinidad and ≥33.0 degrees C in Tobago.