We have a saying here and that is God is a Bajan” and that’s because we have been spared the direct hit of a hurricane since 1955, while so many of our Caribbean neighbours get slammed year after year.
Hurricane season runs from June to December, and whilst we do closely monitor systems as they pass we are usually fortunate and only experience storm conditions.
Last Year, 2004, was especially awful when Hurricane Ivan, a category five hurricane, was looming just offshore and a direct hit was eminent.
However, at barely the ninety-ninth hour Ivan made a drastic southerly turn and passed a mere eighty miles off our shores with sustained winds recorded at one hundred and fifteen miles per hour. There was some roof damage on the southern end of the island but once again we escaped the wrath while our neighbours in Grenada lost everything when they suffered the direct hit that was seemingly intended for us.
Barbados gets affected by hurricanes roughly once every three years or so and direct hits have had, on average, twenty-six years between them. It is mostly sunny in Barbados year round with the rain occurring mostly in our rainy season, which runs simultaneously to the hurricane season, June to December. During this period there is always the chance of rain showers, tropical depressions and tropical storms, however, they tend not to last very long and because of the porous nature of our limestone island, combined with the ever-present Caribbean sun, everything dries up pretty quickly.
Even though we have been spared hurricanes so many times in the past, we have many well-maintained hurricane shelters and emergency organizations. Therefore, should the occasion arise, we are ready and protected, and so there is no need to fear when in Barbados. The rain will surely stop at any moment, dry up in an instant and hurricanes are few and far between.
*Amazing* graph showing the tropical systems passing within 60nm (= 69mi.) of Barbados and missing since 1963.
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