Met Service working to raise awareness

If you feel that nights have been getting warmer over the years, you are right!

Fact is, Jamaica has been experiencing slight but steady increases in minimum surface temperatures with a 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade elevation, while maximum temperatures have increased at a slower rate of 0.06 °C per decade. This suggests that night-time temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures.

Though very small, these numbers can help to inform mitigation and adaptation policy decisions that will save lives, infrastructure and livelihoods.

It is for this reason that the Meteorological Service of Jamaica (the Met Service) has been using a number of strategies to help Jamaicans understand and appreciate the role stakeholders must play in ensuring that this small-island developing state is prepared to cope with the greater frequency and intensity of natural disasters.

The warning signs are all around. Take, for example, the 2014-15 drought, the worst in 50 years, which was linked to the El Nino phenomenon that was responsible for overall extremely dry conditions that affected the Caribbean.

Two years later, the country was hard hit by a series of intense rainfall conditions that culminated in flash flooding across the island. This was vividly manifested in sections of Clarendon and St Catherine during May of that year.

The real eye-opener, though, was the record-setting rainfall between 2:30 and 6:04 on the afternoon of November 22, when almost 100 millilitres of rain left several streets blocked, swept away vehicles, and damaged buildings in Montego Bay, Jamaica’s tourism capital.

Senior meteorologist and head of applied meteorology at the Meteorological Service of Jamaica, Ronald Moody, put into perspective the reality of this phenomenon that rendered roads impassable and operations at Sangster International Airport grounded.

He told The Gleaner: “On the day, they got 91.4 milliliters of rainfall.

The mean monthly 30-year average for November is 101.8 millilitres, so they got 90 per cent of their normal rainfall in three and a half hours.”

Such extreme weather events must be used as a “platform to communicate with the people of Jamaica the great threat that we face from climate change,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness vowed during a tour of affected areas.

FLASH FLOODING

In January, May Pen, the capital of Clarendon, experienced severe flash flooding. Add to that the extreme beach erosion that has changed, some say irreversibly, the coastlines of Hellshire, St Catherine, and Negril, Westmoreland, as proof positive that climate change is wreaking havoc on our lives.

It is for this reason that the Meteorological Service used the annual observation of World Meteorological Day (March 23) to share with The Gleaner some of the work it has been doing through partnerships with agencies such as the Climate Studies Group, Mona; the Planning Institute of Jamaica; the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, through the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA); the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM); and the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority.

The national conference brought together agriculture and climate change interests to identify strategies and actions that are in line with the broader national climate policy priorities for the agricultural sector.

Strategies identified will be implemented through extension delivery by RADA to improve resilience, agricultural productivity, food security, and the income of 5,000 small-scale farmers in Jamaica.

This will be achieved through the promotion of the widespread adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, the application of ICT tools and other innovations aligned with national climate objectives.