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Monthly Weather Summary, April 2019

National Meteorological Service of Belize

Monthly weather summaries are prepared by the climate section of the National Meteorological Service (NMS) of Belize. The NMS of Belize maintains a network of over 25 weather stations that are situated primarily in the agricultural regions of the country. Temperature and rainfall are read at 9 am each morning and the rainfall total read at this time represents the accumulated rainfall for the previous day.

April is climatologically the driest month of the year in Belize. The month is characterized by dry, warm and hazy conditions. An occasional late-season cold front may cross country. Whenever such systems cross at this time of the year, they typically produce very intense thunderstorm activity.

The first four days in April 2019 was mostly dry across the country. Slack pressure patterns supported a light easterly to southeasterly surface flow on the first day. Only light isolated showers were observed. The flow became more easterly to east-northeasterly the following few days but conditions remained mostly dry. The dry conditions were interrupted slightly on the fifth when a few showers and possible isolated thunderstorms affected the extreme south. A return to mainly fair weather was noted on the 6th and 7th.

Moisture increased over the country on April 8th. Afternoon showers and thunderstorms were noted over the Maya Mountains and other areas in the Toledo district. A further increase in moisture occurred on the 9th due to a stationary front over Yucatan with a prefrontal trof over the northwest Caribbean Sea. This system produced a few showers and isolated thunderstorms mostly over northern areas in the morning shifting southwards late in the evening. Synoptic analysis over the area suggests that the front actually crossed during the late night hours of the 9th into the 10th and stalled just south of Belize where it rapidly dissipated.

Conditions became dry across the country on the 10th with little to no rainfall observed. A high pressure system over the Central Gulf of Mexico that day favoured a light easterly flow. The flow became more east-southeasterly the following day supporting mainly fair, warm and dry conditions. A similar pattern prevailed for the following few days.

A weak cold front dipped south, crossing Yucatan late on the 14th and extending to central Belize by early morning on the 15th. This supported strong thunderstorms just north and west of Belize's border on the 14th with moderate shower and thunderstorm activity mostly over inland areas of the country the following day (15th). The frontal boundary retrogressed northward the following day but residual moisture over the area favour isolated showers mostly over central areas of the country. This activity persisted mainly over the northern half of the country on the 17th.

The 18th saw a return to mainly fair and dry conditions over the area with little to no rainfall noted. A gusty southeasterly surface flow was noted between the Atlantic high pressure ridge northeast of the area and yet another cold front approaching from the northwest Gulf of Mexico. By the 19th the cold front was already over Yucatan with prefrontal trof extending to northwest Belize. This system only produced isolated showers and thunderstorms over northern and western areas of the country. The cold front crossed overnight on the 19th and by early morning of the 20th it extended from the Gulf of Honduras northeast to western Cuba and beyond. Areas of rain with embedded showers were noted mainly over central and southern areas of the Country during the night into early morning with conditions becoming fair and relatively cool later in the day of the 20th.

Remnant moisture from the dissipating frontal boundary produced isolated showers over the south on the 21st and a few showers over central and northern areas on the 22nd. Thereafter, no significant feature affected the country for the remainder of the month. Conditions were generally dry with only isolated showers affecting the country. Additionally, isolated afternoon thunderstorms popped up over the Maya Mountains on the 25th, 27th and 29th.

The graphs and maps below summarize the total rainfall and average maximum and minimum temperature recorded during the month of April 2019. They also give an indication of how these readings compare to the normal for the month across the stations sampled. As can be seen, rainfall was below normal over most areas of the country except for central coastal Belize where rainfall was well above average. The Belize Zoo, Melinda and Belmopan recorded rainfall totals more than twice their normal. The situation was the reverse in the extreme west where both Central Farm and Spanish Lookout registered less than half the normal rainfall amounts for the month. Maximum/daytime temperatures were warmer than usual for all of the stations sampled here. Meanwhile nighttime (minimum) temperatures were normal to slightly above normal during April 2019 for all stations sampled here except for Central Farm and Melinda where nighttime temperatures were a bit cooler than normal.

Monthly Rainfall Summary



Monthly Maximum Temperatures



Monthly Minimum Temperatures