Another Low Pressure System Threatens Belize
As residents in the Old Capital reel over the weekend’s epic floods, there is yet another low-pressure weather system that lurks just off the coast of Belize and that is expected to make landfall overnight. Today, News Five headed to the National Met Service near the P.G.I.A. and spoke with Meteorologist Ronald Gordon to get an update on what the country should expect from current weather forecasts.
Ronald Gordon, Meteorologist
“There was an area of low pressure that crossed the country over the weekend. It produced a lot o rainfall especially over the northern parts of the country. This system was being monitored by the end of last week for a low chance of development. We expected some rainfall and our predictions were for a very wet weekend. The amount of rainfall that occurred was not expected. There is what you call extreme events and this is one of those events. The system currently has moved over southeast Mexico. It was expected to emerge over water, but that did not occur so it did not develop. Currently we are looking at another system which is now to the east of Belize and again has a very low probability of development because of its proximity to land and also because of the conditions in the upper atmosphere.”
Duane Moody
“What does that mean for Belizeans?”
Ronald Gordon
Ronald Gordon
“What they should expect that it will continue moist, it will continue cloudy and you can expect some more showers, thunderstorms, periods of light rain especially up north and also central areas including Belize City. Our model guidance generally don’t detect extreme rainfall like twenty-three inches of rainfall especially for a system which is not a hurricane. So currently for this low pressure system we are looking at three to four inches of rainfall; that is a model guidance. We cannot say for sure that we are not going to have more rainfall than that.”
Duane Moody
“When is it expected to reach land?”
Ronald Gordon
“Indications are that it will cross the country overnight and then by tomorrow we should start seeing a decrease in activity. Wednesday should be a transition day between wet and dry and for the most part Thursday should be back to fair weather.”
Stayed tuned for more on this low-pressure system in tonight’s weather forecast.
