Phase one hurricane advisory issued for Belize
If you haven’t pulled out your hurricane tracking chart yet, we suggest you do. Tropical Storm Claudette continues to churn towards the Yucatan peninsula and that could mean bad news for Belize. As of six o’clock tonight, the Government of Belize, through the National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO, has declared the preliminary phase of the country’s hurricane plan. Red flags were raised at key points in Corozal, Orange Walk, San Pedro and Caye Caulker. Information from satellite images and hurricane hunters continue to pour in. What you’re looking at right now is the six o’clock Tropical Weather Update, but the latest advisories from the Belize Met Service indicate that Tropical Storm Claudette’s last recorded coordinates were sixteen point one degrees north and eighty point two degrees west. Local emergency organizations in the north and on the cayes have been mobilized and this morning NEMO held its first meeting in Belmopan to strategize preparations for the nation. The northern part of the country is predicted to experience storm force winds by Thursday afternoon and all mariners and fishermen are advised to seek safe harbour. This afternoon, News 5’s Jacqueline Woods met with local weather experts to find out exactly what all of this means for Belize.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The National Meteorological Service says if tropical storm Claudette continues on its projected path, there is a ten to twenty percent chance that outlying cayes like San Pedro and the northern part of the Corozal District will experience bad weather.
Ramon Frutos, Meteorologist
“The threat on Belize will be minimal if it continues along that track and if it does not intensify. Claudette is expected to maintain the present strength of tropical storm force for the next twenty-four hours as it moves west north westwards.”
“It’s possible that as Claudette approaches the Yucatan coast tomorrow, the upper level system that has been producing the wind shear, the south westerly wind shear over Claudette, would have moved further west into Yucatan or the Bay of Campeche and conditions could become favourable for Claudette to strengthen a little bit before it makes landfall.”
Current conditions and the previous movements of other storms documented in the last hundred years have led meteorologists like Belize’s Ramon Frutos to feel comfortable in predicting that Claudette will maintain her projected path. But of course, there is always room for error and tropical storms and hurricanes can be dangerously unpredictable, which is why the general public is asked to continue to closely monitor this storm.
Ramon Frutos
“We are just indicating to people that we should continue to be very vigilant during the course of the next twenty-four hours to see what exactly Claudette will do. And if it begins to pose a direct threat to Belize come tomorrow, then I think all measures for preparations should be in place or will become necessary tomorrow.”
For now, weather experts say Claudette will not strike Belize. But Frutos says it is likely that the local weather will deteriorate over the next three days as the storm moves over the Yucatan.
Ramon Frutos
“With the water vapour image you can see it clearly the how the moisture is moving into the storm from the inter-tropical convergence zone that extends across Panama and the lower part of Central America. So it’s possible that as the storm moves westward, this moisture will continue from the Pacific across Central America into the storm and it could translate into some showers and thunderstorms over Belize. So it’s likely that tomorrow we’ll see more cloud conditions and showers becoming more frequent, especially over the coast.”
Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
News 5 understands that several businesses and homeowners from the cayes, and at some inland locations, have decided not to take any chances and have already started to move what they can to higher ground.
