Hurricane Season begins this week

The hurricane season for the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea is just around the corner. The National Meteorological Service expects that Belize will see an active hurricane season between June first and November thirtieth, but this year won’t be as busy as last year. Still yet, Belizeans should be well prepared for any storm. Chief Meteorologist, Dennis Gonguez says predictions indicate that as many as eighteen systems can be expected.

Dennis Gonguez, Chief Meteorologist

“Indications are that we are in for another busy season this year. The forecasts are not for, as busy as last year but busy nonetheless.”

Andrea Polanco

“So are we maybe expecting more hurricanes developing or will we be seeing more tropical storms?”

Dennis Gonguez

“Well the forecast range from as low as thirteen  named systems, that’s the forecast produce by the Cuban Meteorological Service to as high as eighteen systems as predicted by the National Weather Service of the United States. So there’s a broad range from about thirteen to eighteen named systems, that’s well above average. The average for this Atlantic Basin is to see about ten named systems.”

Andrea Polanco

Dennis Gonguez

“So we can expect to see the systems developing through-out the entire hurricane season or only be concentrated maybe a particular couple months in between?”

Dennis Gonguez

“Well it’s hard to tell bout our, the peak of our season lies around September and October in the Western Caribbean. So that is where we have the heightened activity during the months of September and October.”

Andrea Polanco

“So what can these predictions mean for Belize?”

Dennis Gonguez

“Well increased predictions, increased number of storms translates to the increase likelihood of being hit. With more storms you have out there the more likely it is that you’ll be hit. So we should take lessons learned from Hurricane Richard and the other two systems, other three systems Alex, Karl and Matthew from last year. We should take lessons from those and be better prepared for this 2011 hurricane season.”

The following names have been released by the World Meteorological Organization for this year’s storms: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katia, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince and Whitney.