Belize’s Heat Wave To Be Broken By Cold Front

On Tuesday, the National Meteorological Service issued a heat alert, warning the public that temperatures were expected to exceed ninety-seven degrees Fahrenheit. Since then, Belize has experienced extreme levels of heat, with some areas rising to one hundred-and three degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, temperatures are expected to fall as a cold front is predicted to pass over the country on Thursday. As conditions continue to change, the National Meteorological Service of Belize is advising all to remain mindful and vigilant of the weather. We spoke with the Chief Meteorologist, Ronald Gordon, for an update.

 

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist
“We issued a heat alert starting yesterday. And it continues today. We issued those heat alerts whenever temperatures inland are expected to exceed ninety-seven degrees Fahrenheit. Currently, or what we observed yesterday was that temperatures varied from about ninety along coastal areas to the lower one hundreds inland. For example, in Central Farm, we recorded one hundred two degrees Fahrenheit, and the highest was in Chaa Creek, which was one hundred three degrees Fahrenheit. These are from our network of automatic weather stations. They are not quality checked as such as it is, so they are preliminary data, but certainly they give us an indication of how hot it was. And that is the reason why we issued those heat alerts. Actually, we are expecting a cold front  to come over our area later tonight. And so we will see temperatures decrease a bit. I, therefore today’s actually the last day for this particular heat wave. Tomorrow should be a bit cooler. It’s not going to be cold. It’s not a cool front like in December, but certainly it’s going to be a relief from the extremely hot conditions that we are currently experiencing. One of the measures that we advise our residents to do, of course, is to remain hydrated, you drink a lot of water, fresh juices. Avoid going into the direct sunlight, if possible. I know that’s not possible for everyone, but if you can avoid it, try to avoid it as much as possible. If you’re able to get some sort of shading, try to take that. And of course, the clothes that you wear as well. Try to wear clothes that will be a bit cooler and that type of thing. And then we advise, of course, for persons to look out for each other, especially our elderly, vulnerable population, people with disability and young Children and even our pets. So certainly we need to be very caring of others at this time. Heat, exhaustion and heat stress is real. It can have devastating impact and it can be even fatal. So certainly we advise residents to take these precautions and take them seriously.”