Caribbean islands especially those in the south have been urged to prepare for heat waves as they will be a feature of the 2017 rainy season.
That is the warning issued by Dr. Simon Mason of the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology in his presentation – Caribbean Heat Outlooks: Research And Product Development to the participants attending the Caribbean Regional Climate Outlook Forum which opened here last Wednesday.
Simon said in the past, not a lot of emphasis was placed on heat waves but data gathered from islands over the years, has shown that this is a growing challenge.
“It’s time to investigate the problems of heat waves and the best way to deal with it in this region,” said Simon who pointed out that in the United States of America heat waves kills more people than tornadoes while in 2003 heat waves killed 30 000 in France.
A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries.
