A special warning has been issued for severe thunderstorms leading to the postponement of Soca 5.0.
Director of the The Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS), Sabu Best said moments ago they were seeing a strong area of convection nearing the island.
“These showers and strong thunderstorms should be on top of Barbados around 10 p.m.,” he said.
Best added that the BMS had elevated its yellow alert, which had led to the country being placed on flash flood watch most of today, to orange, placing Barbados under a severe thunderstorm watch.
“This is a very small feature, but it can be very intense,” the BMS chief said. Best advised that high gusts of winds were also a probability, some up to tropical storm strength, even though the feature wasn’t expected to last more than two hours.
According to Best, lightning strikes associated with the feature were also a possibility.
One of the feature events of the 2024 Crop Over Festival calendar, the National Cultural Foundation’s Soca 5.0 show at the National Botanical Gardens, was postponed after the Orange alert was instituted.
Chief Executive Officer of the NCF, Carol Roberts, informed patrons just before 9 p.m. that the show would be instead staged on Kadooment Day, and all tickets would be valid. (BA)