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We asked Chief Meteorological Officer Dennis Gonguez what made this thunderstorm so particularly strong:

Dennis Gonguez - Chief Meterologicial Officer
"We noted that on Monday night, we did have some severe thunderstorms, and also Tuesday. We looked at squally conditions with wind gusts in the vicinity of 35-38 miles per hour gusts. We saw the thunderstorms moving northward from earlier Monday evening. We were able to predict that thunderstorms would affect Southern Belize. However the severity of the winds, we didn't quite have a good handle on it until yesterday."

Jules Vasquez
"Are the two storms on back-to-back nights related?"

Dennis Gonguez
"The same patterns existed, and the pattern will persist through tonight and possibly, it look like we will see some changes come Thursday night and Friday. So it looks like it should improve come Friday and Saturday."

Jules Vasquez
"So we may expect to have similar condition again tonight?"

Dennis Gonguez
"There is a high possibility of thunderstorm activity tonight."

As Gonguez noted, the storm was most powerful in southern Belize. The proof of that is in the decimated banana belt - which we'll show you a little later. Lightning also damaged the main transformer at the Independence substation - leading to blackouts across Independence and in part of Placencia.

While power has been restored to most areas, the replacement transformer is only just reaching Independence so at least two areas of that village currently have been without electricity for 18 hours and that will extended to "24 hours - plus" as the new transformer is installed.