Flash Flood Risks Elevated in South and West Belize Due to Mountain Terrain

As it relates to the flash flood warnings issued yesterday by the Hydrological Service, Tennielle Hendy says it is important to note that the network of mountainous terrain in the south and the west do contribute to the risks of flash floods.

Tennille Hendy, Principal Hydrologist, National Meteorological Service of Belize: “Floods is a funny thing in perception or view because for the farmers, flooding is good in some cases. If it’s not that destructive, it brings nutrients coming down and they don’t have to use fertilizers for their farms. So floods can be good and bad depending on the severity or the depth of it. Also, you’re referring to what we call localized flooding. It’s called urban flooding or rural flooding technically but we’re used to saying localized flooding. This takes modeling, and that is a bit challenging when you don’t collect all the parameters that you need to collect. Sometimes it’s expensive to collect those parameters, so we have to look at things like remote sensing.”

Interestingly, NOAA has highlighted that the unusually calm stretch in early September, with virtually no storms during what’s normally peak season, stands out as a statistical anomaly.