Local forecast
Lt. Governor Richards admitted in his statement to the press on Monday about the weather-related problems over the weekend there had been a miscommunication between the Meteorological Service and government’s information services regarding the issuing of a flash flood advisory on Saturday. The point, however, is not so much that authorities announced the advisory was issued a day before it actually appeared in the weather forecast, but the fact that no such advisory was issued on Saturday.
Senior meteorologist Ashford James, no longer heading the Met Office in St. Maarten due to “internal issues,” says a flood watch should have been issued, based on the rains of Friday night. The reason it was not, he suspects, is that the meteorologists from Curaçao now handling the Windward Islands weather forecast are unfamiliar with the local weather situation and therefore do not easily recognise the effects.
James was referring, among other things, to the ponds already being full and the ground saturated after Friday’s rain, as well as experience with the kinds of problems heavy rains can cause especially in the Cul de Sac area, surrounded by hills.
Both Met officer on duty in St. Maarten Yogi Coffie and his colleague in Curaçao Fred Capello see it differently. They say the massive cloudburst of Saturday evening could not have been predicted, although Capello mentioned the fact that the radar in St. Maarten had not been working for several years.
Some may dismiss James’ statements as a way to “get back” at those who took him off the job. That would be too easy, also considering the dedication he has shown during the many weather-related incidents the island has experienced over the years.
It is in any case regrettable that the Windward Islands, which unlike to the ABC islands lie inside what is known as “the hurricane belt,” now have to depend on weather forecasts for which the head office in Curaçao is responsible. The fact that St. Maarten is on a quest to become an autonomous country within the Kingdom and has a one-pillar tourism economy to which the weather is obviously critical only makes it worse.
Aruba kept making use of the Antillean Meteorological Service after obtaining its separate status. St. Maarten should demand the local office again be placed in charge of the Windward Islands forecast and that the broken radar be either fixed or replaced promptly, before it even considers following Aruba’s example.
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