Kalain Ho­sein

Re­porter

kalain.ho­sein@guardian.co.tt

Swel­ter­ing heat con­tin­ues across Trinidad and To­ba­go, with both is­lands record­ing their hottest tem­per­a­tures for 2023 yes­ter­day.

Ac­cord­ing to da­ta from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS), Pi­ar­co record­ed a max­i­mum high tem­per­a­ture of 33.4°C, the high­est for the year, while at Crown Point, a max­i­mum high of 32.4°C was record­ed, which tied the max­i­mum high on Au­gust 5 for the high­est tem­per­a­ture at the site for the year.

T&T has en­tered the sec­ondary peak of the lo­cal heat sea­son, which runs from March through Oc­to­ber, with this peak be­gin­ning in Au­gust through Oc­to­ber. Light winds, rel­a­tive­ly high mois­ture, and high-pres­sure sys­tems be­tween trop­i­cal waves and cy­clones al­low warmer tem­per­a­tures to de­vel­op and per­sist across the coun­try dur­ing this time of year.

This year, with record high tem­per­a­tures across the At­lantic Ocean, ac­cord­ing to the TTMS, “above nor­mal sea-sur­face tem­per­a­tures gen­er­al­ly pro­mote warmer trade winds that blow over the is­lands.” Sea sur­face tem­per­a­tures near T&T are above nor­mal, be­tween 29°C and 30°C. The re­sult—weak east­er­ly to south­east­er­ly winds, in­tense sun­shine, high rel­a­tive hu­mid­i­ty, and ur­banised ar­eas—lead to hot days where max­i­mum tem­per­a­tures ex­ceed 34°C in Trinidad and 33°C in To­ba­go, par­tic­u­lar­ly in cities.

Yes­ter­day, tem­per­a­tures across the coun­try ranged from 32°C to 36°C, but how hot it felt out­side, known as the heat in­dex, was much high­er. Ac­cord­ing to da­ta from au­to­mat­ed and per­son­al weath­er sta­tions, heat in­dices across both is­lands reached lev­els that are con­sid­ered dan­ger­ous, be­tween 41°C and 51°C.

More hot tem­per­a­tures are fore­cast to­day, with a trop­i­cal wave fore­cast to pro­duce cloudi­ness, show­ers, and iso­lat­ed thun­der­storms by to­mor­row in­to Thurs­day, keep­ing max­i­mum high tem­per­a­tures down com­pared to the past week.