The 2016 Hurricane Season begins tomorrow and the experts say it will be a near normal season. Scientists at the NOAA Climate Prediction Center say that there is a 70 per cent likelihood of 10 to 16 named storms developing, and 4 to 8 of those will become hurricanes with a possibility of 1 to 4 developing into major hurricanes.
So, what's the forecast for Belize specifically? We asked the Chief Met Officer today:...
Dennis Gonguez, Chief Met. Officer
"We just completed our staff meeting before the start of the hurricane season where we discuss our hurricane emergency operational plan and what we will do in the event a threat or direct hit. We have an operational plan describing what each individual person in the department has responsibilities for and we have just finished out staff meeting discussing that. Last year we had the El Nino phenomenon, the abnormal warming of the Pacific Ocean that causes a dampening effect on the Atlantic Hurricane season. This year unfortunately for us the El Nino is weakening and by the mid hurricane season by August, the El Nino should be all but gone. So we can expect that our season will start to tend towards being a normal activity. This year we should be prepared that quite possibly we could head to the shelters this year. The thing with projections is that they don't tell where the systems will make land fall, so what I keep repeating all the time with these sort of interviews is that we need to be prepared regardless of what the predictions are, we need to be prepared. That's the most important thing, prepare for any eventuality. Even in a quiet season you can get hit by one system, so the preparation is the most important part of it."
The hurricane season ends on 30 November.
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