Kalain Ho­sein

Me­te­o­rol­o­gist/Re­porter

kalain.ho­sein@guardian.co.tt

To­ba­go is now un­der a Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing un­til noon Mon­day, with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) up­grad­ing the yel­low-lev­el Trop­i­cal Storm Watch to an or­ange-lev­el Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing on Sat­ur­day night due to the ap­proach of Hur­ri­cane Beryl.

The Met Of­fice ex­plained, “This means there is a high­er po­ten­tial for trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions, in­clud­ing sus­tained winds of 63-118 km/h, with­in the watch area, in the next 36 hours. The TTMS has up­grad­ed the Hur­ri­cane Watch for Grena­da and its de­pen­den­cies, to a Hur­ri­cane Warn­ing. At this time, the sys­tem pos­es no di­rect threat to Trinidad, as the prob­a­bil­i­ty for Trop­i­cal Storm con­di­tions is low (5-15%).”

Ac­cord­ing to the TTMS on Sat­ur­day night, ” The Trop­i­cal Storm Watch for To­ba­go has been up­grad­ed to a Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing. This means there is a high­er po­ten­tial for trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions, in­clud­ing sus­tained winds of 63-118 km/h, with­in the watch area, in the next 36 hours. As of 8 pm tonight, Hur­ri­cane Beryl was lo­cat­ed near 10.2°N 50.3°W, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1140 km ESE of To­ba­go, mov­ing west­ward near 35 km/h. As Beryl ap­proach­es the south­ern Wind­wards on Mon­day, there is a medi­um chance (45-55%) of trop­i­cal storm force winds im­pact­ing To­ba­go. Heavy show­ers and thun­der­storms are like­ly from Mon­day, and sea con­di­tions can be­come chop­py and rough.”

Max­i­mum sus­tained winds have in­creased to near 130 km/h with high­er gusts. Con­tin­ued steady to rapid strength­en­ing is fore­cast and Beryl is ex­pect­ed to be­come a ma­jor hur­ri­cane be­fore it reach­es the Wind­ward Is­lands. Hur­ri­cane-force winds ex­tend out­ward up to 20 km from the cen­tre and trop­i­cal-storm-force winds ex­tend out­ward up to 95 km.

The Met Of­fice says, “The ini­tial out­look for Trinidad and To­ba­go is for cloudy skies with show­ers and a medi­um to high chance of heavy show­ers/thun­der­storm ac­tiv­i­ty by Mon­day 1st Ju­ly 2024. Sea con­di­tions are ex­pect­ed to be­come chop­py and oc­ca­sion­al­ly rough from ear­ly Mon­day morn­ing, as Beryl moves across the Wind­ward Is­lands.”

A Hur­ri­cane Warn­ing is in ef­fect for the fol­low­ing is­lands: Bar­ba­dos, St. Lu­cia, St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines and Grena­da and its de­pen­den­cies. A Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing is in ef­fect for the fol­low­ing is­lands: To­ba­go and Mar­tinique. A Trop­i­cal Storm Watch is in ef­fect for Do­mini­ca.

The Met Of­fice ad­vis­es the pub­lic to ” Pre­pare for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions. Have sys­tems in place to pro­tect lives, liveli­hood, and prop­er­ty. Se­cure loose out­door ob­jects and live­stock. Ma­rine in­ter­ests should ex­er­cise ex­tra cau­tion. Mon­i­tor of­fi­cial news sources and weath­er up­dates.”