New Weather System Brewing In Atlantic Expected To Track North, Weaken

Accentuating the continuous threat the Caribbean faces from hurricanes, whose growing frequency scientists have blamed on climate change, a new weather system is brewing in the Atlantic Ocean, though it is expected to turn sharply to the north and weaken later this week.

Yet while the new system is projected to steer clear of the Caribbean, the Florida panhandle is expected to be impacted by Hurricane Michael at Category 3 strength, and the storm is being described as a “potentially catastrophic event”.

Hurricane Michael and the new system in the Atlantic benefit a Monday climate change report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations, which has alarmed leaders the world over and sent a shock through global citizens on the near-future consequences of changing weather patterns caused by global warming. The changes threaten to destroy the current way of life for tens of millions of people if governments across the continents fail to take drastic action.

For the Caribbean, the report serves as an impending catastrophe that island leaders can do little to change. The Caribbean’s contribution to global warming is insignificant, but the consequences these islands will face — and are already facing — are dire. The Caribbean islands are like dots in a body of water whose levels continue to rise and waters continue to warm, creating perfect conditions for hostile weather that could possibly wipe out the Caribbean, relegating it to a memory parents talk to their children about.

And the evidence is already here. Last year, the Caribbean saw a number of deadly storms that ravaged a chain of islands from Dominica upwards all the way to Puerto Rico, and later the U.S. mainland. For some jurisdictions, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, the occurrence had no precedent: two Category 5 hurricanes in the span of two weeks, walloping the St. Thomas-St. John and St. Croix Districts and changing the course of the USVI forever.