The fact that we in Barbados have made it through the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season so far unscathed from a serious weather event, is a development for which all should be grateful.Pre-season forecasts from experts at the Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, predicted an active season with an updated outlook for a “well above-median October-November activity in the Caribbean”.It is for this reason that we must not become complacent with less than two months to go before the close of the season. The island was way out of the path of killer Hurricane Ian. However, our neighbours in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and parts of Florida, were not so lucky.The death and destruction of the weather system have been cataclysmic and the cost to rebuild is several billion dollars and growing.This is the backdrop for a larger debate of several issues related to our ability to prepare for the changing weather patterns that have become more dangerous and more difficult to predict with accuracy.In fact, the publication Scientific America accurately described the 2022 hurricane season as one that went from “quiet to a Power Keg”. Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University described the early part of 2022 as “really, really dead” with no storms in August, which was the first time since 1997. He then described the abrupt change at the end of September as a “sudden flip”.
