Santo Domingo – By the way, the 2022 hurricane season began on June 1, the meteorological analyst Jean Suriel explained that the Dominican Republic is the only country in the Caribbean that does not have weather radars.
This represents a great difficulty, since meteorological radars allow threats to be anticipated and must belong to the risk management and early warning system that must be established in the country.
He also said that all the Caribbean islands have their radarsas is the case of Cuba that has eight .
“Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles and Jamaica have their radars, however in the DR it is the only Caribbean island that does not have it.”
Currently in the Dominican Republic, satellite images are delayed with a time of 15 to 20 minutes; which increases the risk when saving lives and this is the product of the lack of radars.
In the next few days, the Punta Cana radar will be put into operation; however, it is not enough, since it will only cover that part of the country and does not guarantee.
The analyst also said that five Meteo radars would be enough to guarantee security and be able to anticipate the threats of phenomena at a given time.
Climate change and its meteorological effects
Since Climate Change has caused atmospheric phenomena to become larger and more destructive; which has led to the fact that in the last 10 and 15 years they have increased and are of great intensity, ranging from category 3 to category five.
“We are already feeling the effects of Climate Change, as of 2000 a heat wave has begun that causes temperatures to increase before the start of summer,” he said.
“The conjugation of the heat of the sea, the heat of the atmosphere and the increase of the land, cause hurricanes to be more intense,” said Jean Suriel.
He also said that in the Atlantic there could be between 15 to 21 storms and of those 9 to 11 could be hurricanes; of those 3 to 6 could be intense hurricanes of categories 3 to 5; Which implies that the threats in the Caribbean increase, since we are in the center.
Suriel stated that we must prepare ourselves every year since, since we are in the center of the Caribbean, phenomena can form before the hurricane season begins.
When do the effects of the hurricane season begin to be felt?
In the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean region in general, the effects of the hurricane season begin to be felt in the second half of July; which is when it begins to become more favorable for the formation of phenomena very close to the Lesser Antilles and in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea.
However, it is important to highlight that the first three months of the hurricane season are the most dangerous for the Dominican Republic; which are August September and October.
Suriel also said that in the coming weeks we can be relatively calm, but not completely, since the season is a latent threat.
