Monthly Weather Summary, April 2022

National Meteorological Service of Belize

April is normally the driest month where frontal activity ends in Belize and temperatures start to warm up as we approach the end of the dry season and the hottest part of the year. It is also the month where we see the second highest occurrence of upper-level troughs over the country. On average, a total of two cold fronts, eight upper-level troughs, two surface troughs and one mid to upper-level low would influence weather conditions and rainfall. In April, a late season cold front crossed the country while several surface troughs near to our area produced troughing over the country and supported several days of rain, especially in the latter parts of the month. This resulted in rainfall activity being above normal over northern, coastal, and southern locations. It the extreme northwest and western portions of the country, below normal rainfall was observed.

During the first week of April, predominantly dry conditions prevailed across the country as very little moisture was available in the low and upper levels. Ridging was the overall pattern with slight troughing in the area, but Belize was under the convergent side. The dry air was further enhanced by a light to moderate east to south-easterly surface wind flow throughout the week. As a result, both surface observations and radar images showed little to no rainfall affecting the country, with only isolated showers being observed over some portions of northern Belize and over the Maya Mountains due to daytime heating. At the upper levels, a neutral pattern prevailed providing little to no support for showery development and a broad ridge extending over the Northwest Caribbean produced a near zonal flow at the beginning of the week that later became west to south-westerly to end the week.

The second week started off with a late season and weak cold approaching and crossing the country on the 8th. Moisture levels over the area increased as a result in both the low and upper levels between the 8th to 10th of the month. An anticyclone at the upper levels supported a south-westerly wind component with neutral to weakly divergent conditions. With the front, shower activity was concentrated mostly over northern and extreme southern Belize, however, a significant amount of rainfall did not occur during its passage. Surface winds became north-easterly during this period. The front later stalled near Honduras before it dissipated. Moisture lingered over the area for a few days, mostly in the low levels through to April 13 before drying began. Winds near the surface veered to an east to south-easterly flow as a ridge pattern prevailed and at the upper levels, a neutral pattern with a near zonal flow was observed. Only isolated showers were observed during this period with activity occurring overnight in the south.

Ridging was the dominant factor in week three and an east to south-easterly surface flow prevailed. At the upper levels, dry conditions persisted with a north-westerly flow due a broad ridge supporting a neutral to convergent pattern through much of the week. Moisture continued low over the area, despite having the winds back to the North-east as a cold front passed well north of the area. Fair and warm conditions prevailed with little to no rainfall during this period. On April 21, an upper level TUTT extending from the western north Atlantic to the western Caribbean produced a surface trough over the western Caribbean and the surface winds over Belize became east to north-easterly resulting in a slight increase in low level moisture. This led to the development of a few light showers over the mainland and moderate showers occurred over offshore areas.

Most of the rainfall activity for this month occurred during the last week of the month as troughing persisted and was the dominant feature during the period. This supported a moist east to north-easterly surface flow resulting in high low-level moisture. Conditions were relatively dry at the upper levels through most of the week except for April 22, 23, 26 and 27 as an upper-level trough supported a west to south-westerly component and neutral to divergent conditions on the moist days. The other days a more subsident and convergent flow prevailed. Showers and thunderstorms were scattered around the country, especially over southern and coastal areas on April 22, 23, 26 and 27 with the highest amount of rainfall being observed between April 26 and 27. The Melinda Station received the highest one-day total rainfall of 85.1mm on April 26 and the Airport Station received the highest one-day total of 78.7mm on April 27, while the highest monthly total rainfall was recorded at the Melinda Station in the Stann Creek District with 221.1mm of rainfall which marks the highest monthly total ever recorded at this station. Only isolated showers occurred over the other days in the last week with drier conditions setting in to end off the month.

The graph and maps below summarize the total rainfall and average maximum and minimum temperatures. They also give an indication of how these readings compare to the normal for the month across the stations sampled. As can be seen, most of the country experienced above normal rainfall, especially along coastal areas while below normal conditions were observed over the west of the country. In terms of temperatures, most of the stations sampled show near normal maximum/daytime and minimum/night-time temperatures except for Punta Gorda where slightly cooler than normal minimum temperatures were recorded.



Monthly Rainfall Summary

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Monthly Maximum Temperatures

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Monthly Minimum Temperatures

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Rainfall Observed: April 2022 (mm)

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Rainfall Observed: April 2022 (% Above/Below Average)

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