Thirty More Heat Wave Events Forecasted for 2023

The analysis also took an in-depth look at heat wave events in 2023. A heat wave event is a period when temperatures that fall within the top ten percent of the historical record last for at least two consecutive days. Tower Hill, for example, recorded the longest heat wave event for 2023, lasting twenty six days. Belmopan recorded the second longest heat wave event for 2023, lasting a total of twenty-one days. But again, none of these 2023 heat wave events broke Belize’s all-time record of sixty days that was set in 1995. The good news is that the National Met Service is forecasting an increase in showers at the end of the week. But overall, there is a high chance we will continue to experience more heat waves all the way into November.

Shanea Young

Shanea Young, Senior Climatologist, National Meteorological Service of Belize

“Towards the end of this week and early next week there is going to be more cloud conditions but an increase in showery activity, first mostly along the coastal and southern areas and most areas as there is a tropical wave that should come close to our area. It could be associated with a low pressure and that is what would be causing an increase in moisture but also an increase in rains, this weekend in early next week. Most persons would expect that the rainfall during the rainy season will be continuous, when it starts to rain then it doesn’t rain a few days then the rain continues. But, our current forecast for the entire rain season is for below normal. That doesn’t mean you can’t get days or even a few days where you have excess rainfall. So you can still have excess flooding but overall at the end of the six month period the accumulated rainfall will be less than what we normally would get. So those are still expected but there are going to be dry spells and heat wave events, at least thirty event during the entirety rainy season up until the end of November. The longest, at least for the central locations, record occurred in 1995 for multiple stations. Others may have been 1980. But if you look at 1995, what caused that heat wave event, in one location it lasted sixty days consecutively, started in April and continued into June. That was because for that particular year we were in a El Nino event.”