barbudaful weather and climate

weather

The weather in the Caribbean is as great a source of conversation here as it is anywhere in the world - it's too wet, it's too dry… In Barbuda we depend on regular rainfall to fill up the cisterns that collect rainwater for drinking and bathing, keeping the bush green for our animals and irrigating the variety of crops we grow. Barbuda has very little and unreliable rainfall because of its flat landscape and often has years of drought, but it can also pour with rain for several days, although there is no “rainy season” as such.

hurricanes

However, June 1st to November 30th is hurricane season and September has produced some of the worst storms in Barbuda. Expect heavy rain, very high winds, high seas and disrupted travel if a storm is approaching.

One of the best sources of information on the current status of hurricanes in the region is www.stormCARIB.com, which has all the hurricane names listed each season, regular updates on the current weather, satellite images and tracking for hurricanes, and comments from our island neighbours on the weather as it happens. Look at the Antigua posts as no one posts from Barbuda at the moment. Official weather forecasts for Antigua and Barbuda are provided at www.antiguamet.com.

The photos above show the aftermath of one such hurricane, Luis, in 1995, which Claire wrote about in a recent anthology. Other Caribbean islands have also been hit badly by hurricanes, and in 2004, Barbudans contributed to disaster relief when hurricane Ivan struck Grenada.

In 2010 Category 4 Hurricane Earl was a near miss for Barbuda, as you can see from the tracking map and this fantastic picture taken from space.

climate change

Barbuda is a low lying island that will be one of those most at risk from climate change in the future as sea levels rise throughout the world. And yet we still rely on imported diesel to generate electricity for our people, in spite of having almost full time daily sun, consistent wind and waves.

renewable energy fund

A study carried out in 2002 by Richard Bicknell, at that time a student at the Institute of Energy at De Montfort University in Leicester, paved the way for real change as it explored the possibility of an alternative energy project for Barbuda. Read the study (Adobe Acrobat, .pdf, 1MB).

Since then the Barbuda Council have been unable to secure funding to take this research forward and continue to look for a simple affordable solution that would support this, or a similar project, for Barbudans to take their already sustainable lifestyle into the future.

If you are a visitor to Barbuda, look at a carbon offset calculator to see how much your flight may have cost and consider donating this amount to a fund barbudaful.net has set up to assist the Council with exploring alternative energy sources for the island.

Donate via e-mail, or use the PayPal button to the right.

If you are in the business of cheap, accessible and sustainable energy solutions, or you are a social enterprise investor, send us an e-mail.