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Impacted by Caribbean climate
extremes
The 2015 climate experience
Did you notice the drier than normal conditions that affected Jamaica in 2015? Sadly, we were not alone. A number of other Caribbean islands, including Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia, experienced drought conditions, with some islands also reporting above-normal and record temperatures. There were reports of more bushfires, widespread agricultural losses and water restrictions. While these extremes were linked with an ongoing El Niño event, they mimic drier than normal conditions that were observed in eastern Jamaica, Haiti, western Martinique, and, to a lesser extent, over the eastern Caribbean during May–October in 2014, and some eastern islands in July- September 2013. On the other hand, a number of heavy rainfall events were also experienced in the latter half of 2015 affecting, for example, communities in Dominica and Jamaica, and causing landslides and flooding.
The nature of yesterday’s extremes
So what does this suggest? One of the things that the 2013-2015 period has shown us is that the frequency and intensity of climate extremes have been increasing. Recent work by the Climate Studies Group, Mona and collaborators have also shown small increases in annual total precipitation, daily intensity, maximum number of consecutive dry days and heavy rainfall events particularly during the period 1986–2010. Temperatures have been increasing, with daily minimum temperatures increasing
Temperatures have been increasing, with daily minimum temperatures increasing faster than maximum temperatures.
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