Met office urges vigilance over Gustav

We are smack in the middle of the Atlantic Hurricane Season and so it’s no surprise that tonight the Met Office is telling Belizeans to keep an eye out for Gustav, a storm churning its way in the Caribbean Sea. The category one hurricane made landfall on the southwest peninsula of Haiti this afternoon and while some weakening is expected as it moves over that country, it is forecasted that Gustav will re-intensify and may take up a more westerly instead of northwesterly track. We spoke to Acting Chief Meteorologist Ramon Frutos this afternoon and he told us they are monitoring the situation.

Ramon Frutos, Acting Chief Meteorologist
“Projections have Gustav moving towards the Northwest and the force speed is expected to decrease. However, some of the models have Gustav moving more towards the west than towards the northwest and this is a concern to Belize. For example, the European models have Gustav moving towards the Yucatan Peninsula by Sunday somewhere around the central part of the Yucatan Peninsula and it is something we must be concerned about. My message to Belizeans tonight is to continue to remain vigilant. Gustav is still some distance away from our coast. It is possible along the projected path that we have right now; the latest, Gustav will just very extreme northeastern part of our preliminary phase if it continues along that path. Conditions in the northwestern Caribbean, especially around Cuba and that there area around Cayman are very conducive to further strengthening of Gustav before it enters into the Gulf of Mexico. So it is possible that we could have a major hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean before or just at the beginning of the weekend. We will continue to monitor Gustav during tonight and tomorrow and tomorrow in the afternoon we will have a better idea of where Gustav will be headed.”

The latest version of Tropical Weather Update will air immediately following the newscast.