According to Director of Meteorological Services Chesterfield Layne, the fifth major system for this season signalled trouble from the inception with its behaviour patterns.

"Emily always posed challenges to the forecasting community. At one stage it had three centres and it was difficult to actually identify which one was dominant," Layne said during a Press briefing yesterday at Arch Hall Fire Station, the Central Emergency Relief Organisation's base.

He also spoke of a new trend emerging with weather systems.

"Apart from the fact that we seem to be on a period or an era of intense hurricane activity which would have started back in 1995 and is projected to last for 25 to 40 years, it seems as though we will be experiencing a great deal of challenges whereby storm systems will be doing things they did not do in the past," he added.

Layne said the new development seemed to point towards "a pattern of activity where you get a number of years of many strong systems followed by years of weak systems".