Weather Bureau: storm’s path hard to pin down

When Hurricane Iris first appeared as a tropical depression and later as a tropical storm, it looked like it would wreak its havoc on Jamaica, Cuba, Cayman or Mexico…and even when it clearly headed for Belize, the landfall of choice seemed to be San Pedro or Belize City. So what happened? Deputy Chief Meteorologist Justin Hulse says Hurricane Iris, like many of its predecessors, was difficult to pin down.

Justin Hulse, Deputy Chief Meteorologist

“Like in Hurricane Hattie, there was a huge high pressure area…it was actually winter in the Unites States and when that happened, the hurricane can’t move up. So initially, the models were expecting a straight westerly flow. So when it was under Jamaica they were expecting it to go to the west, to Yucatan. But, instead of moving straight west, it had a slight southern component to this westerly motion. And the southern component kept the moving it a little lower, a little lower, until it got to the latitude of Belize and lower until it got to the latitude of Monkey River.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Iris did a lot of damage, could have been worse, unlike Keith that hovered over for some time. Iris moved in and moved out.”

Justin Hulse

“It’s the speed. This was a very fast one, it was like Janet. When Janet struck Corozal in 1957, it had about the same speed, twenty miles per hour. But the speed was very important, because it meant that it stayed only a short while over the country. Now if this was a Keith, and with that amount of wind, it could have done a lot of damage, much more damage.”

Unlike Keith, which sat around for three to four days and produced thirty-two inches of rainfall, Hulse says Iris only brought two to four inches in most areas. As such, severe flooding is not expected to be a problem.”