Kalain Ho­sein

A High-Wind Alert (Yel­low Lev­el) has been is­sued for Trinidad and To­ba­go and off­shore ma­rine ar­eas.

It went in­to ef­fect at 3.55 pm yes­ter­day and the T&T Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) says it will re­main ef­fec­tive through 2 pm to­mor­row (March 26).

Ac­cord­ing to the TTMS, “There is a high (70 per cent) po­ten­tial for mod­er­ate to strong winds with brief wind gusts in ex­cess of 55km/hr. Such wind gusts are ca­pa­ble of dis­plac­ing un­se­cured roofs and loose out­door ob­jects.

Windy con­di­tions can al­so aid in spread­ing ex­ist­ing bush­fires faster along land­scapes. Ma­rine ac­tiv­i­ty can be ad­verse­ly im­pact­ed by these strong winds, and vis­i­bil­i­ty may be ex­treme­ly low dur­ing dusk and dawn. Wind waves can reach oc­ca­sion­al­ly above 2.5m in open wa­ters and chop­py in shel­tered ar­eas.”

The colour of the alert in­di­cates the sever­i­ty of the event and the prob­a­bil­i­ty of the event oc­cur­ring.

Cur­rent­ly, the alert lev­el is at yel­low. This means that the haz­ard is like­ly but the sever­i­ty of im­pacts is mod­er­ate for this par­tic­u­lar alert.

The pub­lic should be aware of the dan­gers in their area as­so­ci­at­ed with gusty winds in ex­cess of 55 KM/H. These in­clude the top­pling of pot­ted plants and light ob­jects out­doors falling over or be­com­ing air­borne.

Larg­er but weak­er trees may fall, caus­ing roof dam­age or down­ing pow­er lines and util­i­ty poles. Un­se­cured roofs may be dam­aged.

Winds may al­so in­crease the speed and spread of bush­fires. These strong winds are fore­cast to ag­i­tate seas and re­duce vis­i­bil­i­ty in ma­rine ar­eas.

The Met Of­fice ad­vised the pub­lic to se­cure loose items and live­stock, take all nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions and mon­i­tor weath­er con­di­tions and up­dates from of­fi­cial sources.

In ad­di­tion, small craft op­er­a­tors should be on the alert for above nor­mal or chop­py sea con­di­tions in strong winds, and all beach­go­ers should fol­low the in­struc­tions of life­guards.