Christmas Day showers likely

BARBADIANS CAN EXPECT intermittent showers on Christmas Day but not the deluge that it experienced yesterday, prompting a flood warning.

Acting director of the Barbados Meteorological Services, Sonia Nurse, said there would be a lull in rainfall activity tomorrow, but it would not be completely dry as showers were expected going into Sunday morning.

“We will see some showers off and on but then we should see a little drying for the Boxing Day holiday,” Nurse said.

She said it was not customary to have the level of rainfall in December but there had been some rainy December months in the past. She said the average rainfall for December was 89.6 but so far this month and with nine more days to go it was already above that figure.

“Actually, the long-term average for December at the airport is 89.6 mm and right now the rainfall for December 1 until present is 93.6 mm. So considering that there are a few more days in the month, it is expected that the rainfall will be higher than normal,” she said.

She said the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology Hydrology (CIMH) held a workshop in Grenada recently at which it was predicted that the rest of the year and into the first part of next year there would be above normal rainfall.

According to most recent data at the meteorological office, the wettest December recorded in Barbados was in 1998, almost 20 years ago, when there were 327.9 mm of rain. (LK)