THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY experienced all last week should continue throughout this week as well.
The Barbados Meteorological Service said yesterday that a combination of weather systems had caused temperatures to keep climbing.
As a result, the temperatures at the airport have reached as high as 32 degrees Celsius, surpassing the April average, as people across the island complained about how hot it has been.
Meteorologist Rosalind Blenman said yesterday: “Over the past week to ten days the Atlantic high pressure ridge was weakened by an existing low pressure system, as well as a series of frontal systems moving across the north Atlantic.
“The combination of these systems resulted in lighter five to 15-knot breezes across Barbados and along with warmer temperatures, accounted for hotter conditions. Over the past few days maximum temperatures at the airport ranged between 31.5 and 32.0° Celsius, which slightly exceeds the long-term 30-year average for the month of April.”
There is no outlook for any significant rainfall for the remainder of this week. 
While no heatwave has been declared in Barbados, this action was taken last week in both Trinidad and Tobago, and St Lucia. The temperature reached 35 degrees Celsius in the twin-island republic while in St Lucia, the meteorological services there said March 2016 recorded an average of 27 degrees Celsius and was the hottest month so far for the year.
But it is not only people in Barbados who will need protection from the extreme heat as James Paul, chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society, said poultry producers with conventional pens would have to reduce the number of birds in a pen. He added that water consumption would increase to ensure the birds were kept hydrated.
Carlyle Brathwaite, president of the Poultry Producers’ Association, away from duty on sick leave, said from experience the heat would have an impact on growers.
However, he noted that many of them had equipment in place to help reduce the heat in the pens and they had also reduced capacity of the chickens in each pen in an effort to reduce the level of mortality.
“Everybody has in fans to help keep the pens cool,” Brathwaite said. (ES)
