RAINFALL LEVELS HIGH BUT NOT UNPRECEDENTED – WEATHER BRANCH

Head of the Weather Branch of the National Meteorological Service, Evan Thompson has said that while the level of rainfall being experienced was more than was normal, these levels were not unprecedented.
“On average we have been seeing 150 per cent of what is normal for an entire month experienced in only six days,” Mr. Thompson told JIS News.
However he said, the rainfall levels were not unprecedented. “On occasions, we have even had rainfall amounting to almost 600 per cent of normal. Flooding events have different percentage relationships with the average. We have seen this before,” he said.
The rainy season runs from September to October with October being the height of the season, “so it is not unusual for us to experience this kind of above average rainfall in terms of for the year – most of it really occurs in October. The level of it though is a bit more than what is the norm,” Mr. Thompson said.
Providing details, Mr. Thompson said the station at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, had recorded total rainfall of 341 millimetres (mm) over the six-day period (Oct. 14-19). This, he explained, translated to 200 per cent of the 30-year mean.
At Waterloo Road in Kingston where the Meteorological Office also has a station, the total rainfall level was 416 mm, which is 195 per cent of the average. In addition he said, Worthy Park Estate in St. Catherine experienced 175 per cent of the normal rainfall average. Nonpariel, in Westmoreland saw 156 per cent of the average rainfall and in Ramble, St. Thomas, 160 per cent of average rainfall levels occurred. At Cross Hill, Clarendon, 182 per cent of average rainfall was experienced.