No drought concerns for Caribbean

The Barbados-based Caribbean Drought and Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN) says despite concerns that long term drought is evolving in southern Haiti, there are currently no concerns over short term drought in the Caribbean, up until the end of April this year.

In its latest Caribbean Drought Bulletin, the CDPMN noted that though “recent conditions indicate slight to moderate rainfall deficits in some parts of the Caribbean at various times, there are currently no concerns over short term drought.”

Some concern over Southern Haiti
It said that with longer term drought that can impact ground water and large reservoirs and rivers, “There is some concern currently over southern Haiti.

“Long term drought is evolving in southern Haiti. The potential long-term drought concerns are few region-wide at this time thanks to the ample wet season rainfall in 2017,” it added.
According to CDPMN, for the last three months of 2017, mixed rainfall conditions were experienced in the islands of the eastern Caribbean.

It said Trinidad ranged from normal to exceptionally wet; Tobago moderate to very wet; Grenada slight to moderately wet; Barbados slightly wet; St. Vincent normal to slightly dry; St. Lucia normal to slightly wet; Martinique normal to severely dry and Dominica normal to moderately wet.

It reported Antigua was moderately dry while St. Kitts and St. Maarten experienced normal wet conditions and Jamaica ranging from normal in the west to extremely wet in central areas.

Weak La Nina
It said that a weak La Niña state will continue to drive chances of drier conditions slightly upwards in the northwest of the region, in particular The Cayman Islands and Cuba, while slightly increasing chances of wetter conditions in most of the Lesser Antilles.

La Niña is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply “a cold event.” La Niña, the direct opposite of El Niño, occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean drop to lower-than-normal levels.