November 30th marked the end of the hurricane season for our region which covers the north Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

Pre-season forecasts issued in April and May predicted near normal tropical cyclone activity this year. In reality, the year 2019 tied the year 1969 in being the fourth most active Atlantic Hurricane season on record. The season produced a total of 20 tropical cyclones which included 18 named storms, of which seven became hurricanes and of these, three were major hurricanes, namely Dorian, Humberto and Lorenzo.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), “This year marks the fourth consecutive above-normal Atlantic hurricane season. The only other period on record that produced four consecutive above-normal seasons was 1998-2001. Also this year, five tropical cyclones formed in the Gulf of Mexico, which ties a record with 2003 and 1957 for the most storms to form in that region.”

The most devastating tropical cyclone for the season was Hurricane Dorian which reached Category 5 intensity. It threatened Saint Lucia and parts of the Lesser Antilles, and then moved northward producing winds as high as 185 mph that devastated the Bahamas and later affected Nova Scotia, Canada. The other category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Lorenzo, crossed the Atlantic Ocean sinking a French Tugboat, and impacting Ireland with floods and power outages.

Saint Lucia, although under threat a few a times during the hurricane season, sustained minimal damages to the island’s infrastructure overall. While the center of Tropical Cyclone Dorian passed directly over Saint Lucia, the impact was far worse in the neighbouring islands of Barbados, Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe. Saint Lucia was placed under a tropical storm watch and later, a tropical storm warning between 11 a.m. on Aug. 25 and 8 a.m. on Aug. 27, during the passage of Dorian. On Oct. 30, a flood warning was issued for Saint Lucia between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. as a result of heavy rains that affected the island on that day.

The Saint Lucia Meteorological Services urges all Saint Lucian residents to continue paying close attention to local weather reports, advisories and bulletins, even if we are outside the hurricane season. The next hurricane season runs from 01 June to 30 November 2020. We wish all Saint Lucians a blessed and safe holiday season.