Monthly Weather Summary, February 2017

National Meteorological Service of Belize

February 1st 2017 saw a light easterly surface flow prevailing, while at upper levels a trough east of our area supported a convergent / subsident northwesterly flow over our area. Mostly cloudy skies prevailed with little or no rainfall over the mainland, while a few showers over central coastal waters early, drifted on-shore with a few more developing inland during the afternoon and and over-night into the 2nd. Light winds supported some coastal convergence and isolated early morning showers into the 3rd. During the next few days through 13th an east-northeasterly flow supported low level moisture through the lower 10,000ft and night-time / early-morning showers occurred over the south and some central areas of the country.

Mainly fair, warm and dry weather prevailed during Tuesday 14th through Monday 20th as the upper level pattern continued convergent / subsident and a light to moderate east-southeasterly surface / low level flow developed. During the 15th and 16th a frontal boundary was positioned over the Bay of Campeche and a pre-frontal shear-line drifted across Yucatan - Guatemala and northern Belize over-night but supported only isolated showers in the northwesterly flow along with isolated afternoon showers resulting from day-time heating over the Maya Mountains. The shear-line rapidly weakened as it retrogress over the area with the southeasterly flow returning. Upper level moisture increased during Friday 17th as a trough moved nearer our area, while a cold front stalled across central Yucatan then retrogressed and dissipated while the east-southeasterly surface / low level flow continued to dominate.

By the 20th a deep layer trough to the west and northwest supported rapid deepening of a surface low over Texas / Louisiana. the low ejected across he southeastern United States with the associated cold front swinging east and sotheast to Yucatan by the 22nd, while a pre-frontal triough drifted over our area and into the northwestern caribbean sea. The relatively weak frontal boundary would eventually drift over the extreme Northwest Caribbean by Wednesday 22nd, while the associated shear-line continued southeast to southern Costa Rica / Panama. Few showers affected the south during the afternoon / evening of the Tuesday 21st and the northern / central areas through early night-time. A few more showers developed over the northern districts over-night into the 22nd and drifted eastwards to coastal waters by day break. early morning temperatures were slightly cooler where as relatively warm daytime temperatures occurred during Wednesday 22nd through Friday 24th.

An east-southeasterly airflow supported mainly fair weather during 23rd and 24th with isolated afternoon thunderstorms developing over the Maya Moutains during the 25th. By the 26th broad troughing developed over the Northwest Caribbean and supported an east-northeasterly flow. The trough sheared northwestward across Yucatan and the flow veered to the southeast by the 26th with insignificant increase in moisture and shower activity. Mainly fair weather continued during Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th.