31 Continued from previous page 1846, September 11: Severe tropical storm passed south and drove vessels ashore. 1848, September 18: Tropical storm passed north dumping much rain. 1855, August 24: Tropical storm killed three; drove boats ashore. Rainfall was 9 inches at Edgecumbe and 10.36 inches at Bayfield. 1872, September 8: Severe thunderstorm. Between 8.01 and 11.02 inches of rain 1877, September 21: Tropical storm passed over Barbados. No serious damage. 1886, August 15: Hurricane passed 40 miles north of Barbados. Gale force winds; 7-9 inches of rain; floods in St. Michael; landslides in St. Joseph and St. Thomas 1894, October 12: Tropical storm passed northwest. Destroyed hundreds of homes; 18 fishermen missing. 1898, September 10: Strong hurricane passed south. 83 dead; 9 937 houses destroyed, 4, 519 damaged; 50, 000 homeless. 1901, July 2: Tropical storm passed south. Severe floods, more than 20 inches of rain in St. Peter killing one person. 1949, August 31: Weak tropical storm dumped over 10 inches of rain in St. Joseph, St. John, St. Thomas, St. George; 5 to 6 inches of rain in the north. 1955: September 22: Hurricane Janet passed south of Barbados. Winds over 110 mph damaged or destroyed 8,100 small houses, 20,000 homeless. 1963, September 24: Hurricane Edith passed 50 miles south; 7 to 8 inches rain. 1970, October 1: Tropical depression. Flooding in Bridgetown and St. Michael. 1980, August 3: Hurricane Allen passed north of Barbados. Destroyed about 35 houses and damaged 200 more. END OF EXCERPTS END NOTE BY FRANKLYN MICHAEL It is worth remembering that in the 21st Century Barbados has had at least two significant storm or hurricane impacts, Tropical Storm Tomas in 2010 and Tropical Storm/Hurricane Elsa in 2021. We provide a synopsis of the passage of Tomas below and a stand-alone synopsis of Tropical Strom/ Hurricane Elsa elsewhere in the newsletter. Barbados has an interesting geographical reality. It is approximately 125 miles east of the main chain of Eastern Caribbean Islands. It is virtually midway between the Northern and Southern Islands in the east of the chain. This means that when the Windward Islands are under direct threat from a storm, Barbados is likely to experience adverse weather before St. Lucia and St. Vincent. In their paper issued on March 7, 2011 entitled, Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Tomas (AL212010) 29 October-7 November 2010 Richard J. Pasch and Todd B. Kimberlain of the National Hurricane Center wrote: “While continuing to strengthen, Tomas turned north-westward and its forward speed slowed as it approached the Windward Islands. The cyclone then resumed a west-north-westward heading, and the center passed over the southern coast of Barbados around 0900 UTC 30 October. A couple of hours after its center departed Barbados, Tomas became a hurricane. The eye of the hurricane moved over the northern coast of St. Vincent around 2000 UTC 30 October, while the intense northern eyewall passed over St. Lucia Damage in Barbados and St. Vincent was less severe. Tomas downed trees and power lines ripped off roofs and knocked out power on these islands. No casualties were reported in Barbados or St. Vincent. Approximately 1200 homes were damaged in Barbados, and island wide damage was estimated to be near 8.5 million U.S. dollars. The damage estimate is 3.3 million U.S. dollars in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
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