With weather patterns becoming more unpredictable, Trinidad and Tobago is playing a key role in strengthening how the Caribbean prepares for severe conditions.
A four-day workshop for regional weather forecasters, now underway at the Caribbean Telecommunications Union in St. Clair, is focusing on smarter warning systems.
Speaking to TTT News, Director of the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service, Shakeer Baig, says traditional forecasts must evolve to provide citizens with more practical and impact-driven information.
“It’s not just about whether it is going to be cloudy or sunny, but it’s going to highlight what impact will the weather today have on me, as an individual, and on society.”
Mr. Baig emphasised that early warning systems are especially critical for farmers, fishermen, commuters, and sailors.
He noted that efforts are already underway to provide more targeted, practical information to those most affected.
“At the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service, we have started providing information to various sectors of our communities. We are providing an agricultural forecast which is specially geared toward letting farmers know over a particular period of time what sort of weather to expect. By doing this, the farmers can manage the time in which they lay their seedlings in the ground as well as harvest the crops. And so the one most important piece of information for farmers will be the weather information.”
Meanwhile, United Nations Resident Coordinator Joanna Kazana said the Caribbean is leading the way in adopting early warning systems out of necessity, given the region’s exposure to extreme weather.
“First of all, the region is particularly affected by Hurricane Melissa that we all observed in 2025. That was a Category Five storm and it raced through Jamaica, through Cuba and through Haiti in October 2025. Very quickly in November 2025, the World Bank and the IDB have made their calculations, and they estimated that the damage to Jamaica alone was almost US$9 billion and it was apparently equivalent to about 41% of Jamaica’s GDP of the previous year.”
The four-day workshop is focused on impact-based warning systems and common alert protocols – two key tools that could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars.