Rainfall Levels High but Not Unprecedented

Head of the Weather Branch of the National Meteorological Service, Evan Thompson has said that while the levels of rainfall being experienced were more than normal, they 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 recent 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 lasts 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 – 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, recorded total rainfall of 341 millimetres (mm) over the six-day period (October 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 the average rainfall occurred. At Crofts Hill, Clarendon, 182 per cent of average rainfall was recorded.