Staff Writer 

#USA, July 7, 2023 – As the climate crisis continues to worsen, Tuesday July 4th has unofficially been declared the HOTTEST DAY ON EARTH on record, beating the record set only a day before on Monday July 3rd.

The astonishing announcement came from US Researches at the University of Maine.  

The daily temperature is measured using a range of temperature recording tools across the globe to calculate an average temperature for the Earth as a whole.  On Monday the average global temperature shot to 17.2 degrees for the first time ever, prompting concerns from scientists and environmentalists.  By Tuesday it was 17.18.

Scientists are now working to corroborate the temperatures which prove that the earth is warming at a steady pace as they had predicted.

Climate Scientist and author of Hothouse Earth Bill McGuire described the two day record as terrifying.

The record is attributed to not only global warming but the presence of El Niño which is known to increase temperatures globally.

Staff Writer

#Jamaica, June 12, 2023 – The foreseeable future for Jamaica’s domestic crop production is looking somewhat dim as it is on track to record a decline for the 1st half of the year.

The prolonged drought which started last year was fingered as the culprit for the anticipated decline as highlighted by Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining, who made the announcement during the recent staging of the annual Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show, hosted by the Kingston and Saint Andrew Association of Branch Societies of the Jamaica Agriculture Society at the playfield of the ministry’s Hope Gardens  office.

He said the drought is affecting Jamaica’s farmers despite the effort of the Ministry to quell its impact, further highlighting that “the first quarter of this year will record a decline.”

“In fact, based on the figures that I have already started to peruse, we will see, at minimum, a nine per cent decline in production in the first quarter of 2023, and I do expect that in the second quarter, we will see further declines in relation to agricultural production, largely because of the drought,” he added.

Green pointed to statistics highlighting the seriousness of the drought and emphasizing the magnitude of its impact.

He revealed that last October, at the start of the dry period, the country recorded a 21 percent decline below the annual mean average of rainfall. It persisted for the rest of the year into 2023 with 33 percent less rain in December, 68 percent less in January, and 72 percent less in February.

However, efforts are  being made by Green to mitigate drought effects as he said he has directed Dermon Spence, Permanent Secretary to call an urgent meeting of all of the heads of agencies to have talks about resources into drought mitigation. He expressed that this is in addition to the $200 million already allocated.

These efforts are of great importance amid the arrival of the El Niño Phase. It is important to note that even though the past couple weeks have seen wet weather, the region has not yet escaped the possibility for extensive drought, given the dual nature of the El Niño period which according to Cedric Van Meerbeeck, Climatologist, the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, can either bring suppressed rainfall or a boost in rainfall.

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, June 5, 2023 – As the hurricane season begins, forecasters are watching several battling factors that could determine how active the season is. Dr. Holly Hamilton, Head of the TCI Meteorological Department explained:

“El Niño’s potential influence on storm development could be offset by two factors local to the Tropical Atlantic Basin.  One being that an above normal West African monsoon is being projected this summer; that means more African easterly waves coming off the coast of Africa which are the seeds of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic.  Also we’re seeing warmer than normal sea surface temperatures, and that is the fuel for systems.”

She was speaking at the June 1st, Atlantic Hurricane Season Joint Press Conference hosted by the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies.  Dr. Holly stated though whether the season was more busy than average or not even one storm could be devastating.

“Regardless of El Niño, it is critical that everyone understand their risk and heed the warnings of government officials.”

With that in mind, she urged residents to begin their preparations for the season.

“With the unpredictable nature of these powerful storms, it is essential that we take action now to protect ourselves and our community by taking proactive steps, such as stocking up on essential supplies, securing our homes and staying informed about weather updates,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton promised that the TCI Met Service and Bahamas Department of Meteorology will continue to work on providing swift and accurate information to residents as the season progresses.

Staff Writer

#Haiti, June 5, 2023 – Haiti’s National Emergency Operation Center has been opened according to Dr. Ariel Henry, Prime Minister in addressing the people of his country; all due to heavy rain pouring down resulting in damage across the republic.

The rain which has been gushing over Haiti since June 1st, 2023, is expected to continue for the rest of the week, “three to five days,” according to Marcelin Esterlin, Director General of the Hydro-Meteorological Unit.

“This is not a situation that will improve in the coming hours because we have compact rain cells that have settled in the West and South-East departments, which explains why it’s raining all the time,” added Esterlin.

Additionally, authorities say the probability of rain was 65 percent for Monday and 85 percent for Tuesday.

The Government met and had talks on Saturday June 3rd, 2023, about the unfortunate position Haiti is in as rivers break their banks and floods continue to cover areas of the country alongside landslides, all causing significant damage.

Efforts are being made to help the situation as Rosemond Pradel, Public Works Minister, organized a task force and issued instructions to the Departmental Director to take the steps needed to intervene effectively in the “chefs-lieux” (chief towns) of departments and municipalities.

These actions taken by the Government will serve to be of great help as authorities report towns flooded in the North West, unfortunately leaving many homeless.

In fact, roads in Port-au-Prince, the capital, have become impassable.  Mudslides have also been reported in the capital as well as other regions.

Also, healthcare is negatively affected as hospitals and health centers in the Léogâne region have been flooded, and the situation has been worsened with canals that have not been cleaned which is known to make flooding more severe.

Haiti’s unfortunate reality comes as the Caribbean region enters the first leg of the El Niño Phase that brings severe weather patterns such as dry spells and increased rainfall with a threat of hurricanes.

Caption of Haitian PM press conference

Accompagné des ministres des #TPTC, de la Défense, de l’Environnement, je suis présentement au Centre d’opération d’urgence national (#COUN), dans le cadre des dispositions urgentes à prendre en vue de venir en aide aux populations sinistrées, victimes des intempéries qui s’abattent sur le pays.

Staff Writer

May 23, 2023 – It’s about get even hotter as the UN agency says scientists have warned that the world may experience rising temperatures above the 1.5 Celsius threshold, due to El Niño and human induced climate breakdown, which could have serious consequences putting us into uncharted territory, even though it was initially predicted that the chances of temperature rise above the 1.5C was zero.

This would be failing to keep the promise made by countries in 2015 under the Paris Climate Agreement to keep global temperatures lower than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels (1850 to 1900), following advice from scientists that warming beyond the superior level could be catastrophic resulting in irremediable outcomes.

The report published on Wednesday, May 17th, 2023, by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), highlighted that there is a 66 percent chance of exceeding the 1.5 Celsius mark at least one year between 2023 and 2027.

However, according to Professor Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of WMO, the rise in temperature will not be permanent.

“This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5C specified in the Paris agreement, which refers to long-term warming over many years. However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency.”

Climate breakdown from human activity and the development of the El Niño weather system, as La Niña ends, creates heat waves across the globe.

The La Niña phase, which the world was in for the past three years, had diminished high temperatures around the world.  Now with El Niño, which is expected to develop in the coming months, there is a 98 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will be the hottest ever recorded, scientists say.

It is predicted that each year from 2023 to 2027, the global near-surface temperature will be between 1.1C and 1.8C, above the highlighted pre-industrial levels.

Despite the fact that this rise in temperature is said to be temporary, the effects should not be taken lightly, especially since the world is already seeing negative impacts of warming.

Rising temperatures can lead to serious outcomes, such as death by heatwaves, which from 2016 to 2021, were above the five-year average in every heat-period, with a total of 12,598 excess deaths (9.3% above average, 119 average excess deaths per day; longer droughts; wildfires; shrinking of glaciers and ice sheets; wind intensity and rainfall from tropical cyclones, as well as other serious effects.

Additionally, there will likely be less rainfall in the Amazon, Central America, Australia and Indonesia, according to the report.

For the Amazon, this poses a threat to the region’s rainforest which is what it’s known for. Scientists fear the warming and human deforestation could destroy the region, turning it into more of a savanna.

November of this year will see the meeting of   governments for the Cop28 UN climate summit, where progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris agreement will be examined. The “global stock take”, as the assessment is called, will likely highlight that the world is not close to  reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the stipulated  43 percent this decade that is required to have a good chance of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C.

Editorial Staff 

#TurksandCaicos, April 26, 2023 – The possible arrival of weather system El Nino has prompted several early forecasts from AccuWeather and others predicting a less active Atlantic Hurricane season than usual but Jamie Rhome, Deputy Director of the National Hurricane Centre in a recent visit to the Turks and Caicos urged residents to ignore news surrounding El Nino.

“I want you all to ignore the headlines of El Nino and don’t fall in the trap– I can assure you hurricanes can and will form during El Nino years and will [do so] this season. We don’t know yet where they will go and who they will threaten but El Nino will not stop them from threatening communities ,” he said.

Rhone was speaking at the April 21st visit by the US National Hurricane Centre (NHS) Hurricane Hunter Aircraft and its team. The Hurricane Hunters who are from the NHS, the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Association and US Air Force Reserve, were back in the Turks and Caicos; they’d visited in 2017.

Rhone maintained the visit was a major investment and a purposeful one as well.

“That’s a big plane, it consumes a lot of fuel and there’s 23 personnel on board. That’s a big investment— what is it we’re trying to say by bringing it here? It’s a strong strong message that hurricanes are a big risk to this community and to your country,” he said.

Using Fiona as an example, the Deputy Director explained that storms were no longer allowing countries in their trajectory days of warning to prepare, rather they were intensifying rapidly and sometimes overnight.

“Increasingly how hurricanes manifest themselves is through this sudden quick intensification leaving people a day to prepare, sometimes even less. No longer can we wait for the storm to approach to prepare,” he warned, emphasizing preparation at the beginning of the season which begins on June 1.

While encouraging prior preparation, the deputy director provided insight to a problem that may go unnoticed, deaths of the elderly in the aftermath.

“I especially want you to think about the elderly, we’re seeing an increase in loss of life after storms due to the loss of power and the oppressive heat that often comes after these events.”

Residents and policy makers were admonished to think about things like this that were ‘beyond the immediate’ like stocking up on medication.

Dr. Holly Hamilton who heads the Meteorological Service in the Turks and Caicos led the event thanking the team for their service.

“It is an essential tool when it comes to Hurricane forecasting and tracking, the people on that plane risk their lives to go in and retrieve very important data that we use to predict and protect your lives,” she explained.

Anya Williams, Acting Governor assured the country that the country’s respective authorities were already preparing.

“We know that the hurricane season is from June to November but it’s important that we are prepared.  Earlier this week we had our first state of preparedness meeting with all ministries and departments to ensure that the government in the Turks and Caicos is as prepared as possible.”

That extends to the population as well, Williams maintained:  “No matter how prepared the government is, we are only properly prepared as our people are.”

E Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister thanked the NOAA team, expressing his personal delight at the visit of the aircraft, commending the value of collaboration.

“I would like to emphasize the importance of working together in the face of adversity as Hellen Keller put it. It is through our collective efforts that we can make a difference,” he reminded. “Today we can make a significant impact in building a more secure and resilient Caribbean and Turks and Caicos Islands.”

He expressed his excitement to see the ‘incredible technology and dedication” that made the flights into hurricanes, which provide lifesaving information to the Turks and Caicos and the entire Caribbean, possible.

Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration and Border Services emphasized preparation as well expressing his gratitude to the NOAA team.

“I appreciate you guys coming in and sharing your expertise with us, so let’s get all of their knowledge and then let’s share it with each other,” he offered as officials, students and other hurricane season stakeholders eagerly awaited the opportunity to see the parked aircraft up close.

Rhodes had one last request:  “I want you to walk away from the event with a newfound commitment to ready yourselves and your community for June 1.”

The aircraft was hosted at the Provo Air Center, near the Providenciales International Airport by the TCI Airports Authority.  A succinct welcome ceremony and expo were also staged to mark the visit which also included stops in Mexico, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.