Learning Center on Caribbean Weather and Climate

HOME    FUNDAMENTALS    CLIMATE    WEATHER    SOCIETY    SCHOOLS    ABOUT    NEW

Climate - Climate change in the Caribbean

Observed recent changes

Based on an observational data set from 30 stations and ranging back to 1950s, a regional workshop held in Jamaica, January 2001 found that: 

• The extreme intra-annual temperature range is decreasing.

• The number of very warm days and nights is increasing dramatically.

• The number of very cool days and nights is decreasing..

• Consecutive dry days is decreasing. 

• The number of heavy rainfall events is increasing.

• There is a relationships to hurricanes and sea surface temperatures, but no one factor dominates all the observed changes.

• Some of the types of changes documented can significantly impact small island countries.

• Continued data archeology and analysis should be encouraged.

You can view the complete results of the workshop by downloading the Recent Climate Change in the Caribbean presentation (ams-carib.pdf, 1.3 MB) from a NOAA web site or read the complete article (.pdf, 511 kB).

In the Special Report on The Regional Impacts of Climate Change of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change it is summarized that, for the Caribbean islands, average annual temperatures have increased by more than 0.5°C over the period 1900–1995 (see Figure 9-2a of the Report); the seasonal data are consistent with this overall trend. In the specific case of Cuba, for which a study of observed temperature trends has been undertaken, Centella et al. (1996) found that mean air temperature has risen by 0.6°C during the preceding 45 years. Rainfall data for the same period show much greater seasonal, interannual, and decadal-scale variability, although a declining trend in average annual rainfall—on the order of 250 mm—is evident (see Figure 9-2b of the Report). The annual number of tropical cyclones for the greater Caribbean over the last 100 years shows high interannual and subdecadal variations with no long-term overall trend (see Figure 9-2c of the Report).

Back to top of this page

Copyright notice and disclaimer: In cases when the origin is not specifically indicated, the copyright of the material of this site resides at The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH). The information contained within Cawedu.net is provided with the understanding that The CIMH makes no warranties, either expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability. The public is urged to use the information freely with appropriate acknowledgement of its source, but shall not be modified in content and then presented as original material.

Send email to meteorartyahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site. Questions concerning material, copyright of which resides outside of CIMH, should be directed to the institutions in question.