guadeloupe climate change recentclimate (1)
guadeloupe climate change recentclimate (1)

Guadeloupe climate

Guadeloupe climate change benefits from a tropical climate tempered by maritime influences and gentle winds: trade winds. Two seasons succeed each other: Lent, dry season from January to June, and winter, wet season from July to December.

The average temperature is 25°C . Intermittent rainfall concentrated on September and October. Average sea water temperature: 24 to 28°C.

The average monthly temperatures remain remarkably stable, varying by only about 3º C (5º F) year-round. This stability is attributed to the tradewinds (les alizés), which bring refreshing breezes from the northeast throughout the year.

guadeloupe climate change recentclimate (1)
guadeloupe climate change recentclimate (1)

Summer is actually a great time to visit the islands because lodging rates are much lower and the beaches, roads and restaurants are not crowded. Winter and the Christmas/New Year holidays are traditionally the most popular time to go.

Guadeloupe climate, the climate is tropical, hot and humid all year round, with a relatively cool and dry season from January to mid-April, called carême (Lent), and a hot, humid and rainy season from mid-June to mid-November, called hivernage (the root of the word reminds of the winter, although it is a hot season, and also quite sunny).

In the former period, the northeast trade winds, constant winds typical of tropical climates, blow steadily and with moderate intensity, while in the latter period, these winds are more irregular, and may have some breaks, increasing the feeling of sultriness.

Between them, there are two transitional periods from mid November to early January (when the northeast trade winds start to blow, the temperature decreases a bit and the weather gets better) and from mid-April to Mid-June (when both the temperature and the frequency of downpours gradually increase).

Guadeloupe climate change, an overseas region of France, is an island, actually, it is formed by two islands connected together: Basse-Terre (the western island, where the regional capital of the same name is located) and Grande-Terre. In addition, we find some smaller islands: Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the small group of Iles des Saintes.

Guadeloupe climate Changes

The Caribbean islands, though culturally and linguistically diverse and differing government systems, are coming together to confront the climate changes that threaten their rich tropical environment and the livelihoods of their people.

Seas are warming and acidifying, reducing fish catches, while on land water shortages are being recorded in recent droughts. Sargassum algae washes ashore, clogging some beaches and deterring tourists, a big source of income. Fears of more destructive Atlantic hurricanes worry the public.

guadeloupe climate change recentclimate (1)
guadeloupe climate change recentclimate (1)

There is also an emerging sense that the people of the Caribbean are being left behind in global planning and assistance in meeting these challenges. This perception is apparently a factor spurring initiatives for regional self-help.

In January, officials from around the Caribbean met in the French islands of Guadeloupe to introduce a regional project, the Carib-Coast program, to deal cooperatively with “repeated storm crises and rising sea levels,” according to Caribbean News Now, a journalists’ collaborative service covering dozens of countries and major regional organizations.

Carib-Coast “will notably provide a digital marine submersion modeling platform, a coastal erosion monitoring and prevention network based on nature-based solutions and operational risk management tools,” the Caribbean news service reported.

Led by Guadeloupe’s Office of Geological and Mining Research, the program is supported by, among others, the Caribbean Community for Climate Change Center.

In another regional initiative, Caribbean fisheries ministers met in Barbados in October 2018 to begin writing a policy on how to adapt fishing industries to climate change and improve disaster-risk management.

Guadeloupe’s leadership in responding to climate change is interesting on several levels. It is not an independent nation in the mold of many Caribbean islands.

An archipelago of more than five islands in the Lesser Antilles, Guadeloupe is a department, or province, of France, its former colonial power, 4,200 miles (6,757 kilometers) across the Atlantic Ocean from Paris. It is part of the European Union, using the euro as its currency and shunning the United States dollar.

Guadeloupe’s largest components are small islands, compared with the region’s relative giants, such as Cuba, Puerto Rico or Hispaniola, which is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti

Guadeloupe climate and disaster affects

In August 2007, Hurricane Dean struck Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe also is regularly blanketed by clouds of ash from Montserrat’s volcano. Since 1973, Guadeloupe and Martinique have grappled with the contamination of river waters and sediments with organochlorine pesticides (mainly chlordecone).

Several studies already have been conducted and additional ones are under way to determine the health risks for residents in these areas (principally Guadeloupe).

The Hibiscus Study conducted in Guadeloupe in 2003 showed that chlordecone had been detected in 90% of maternal blood and cord blood samples and in 100% of abdominal fat collected during cesarean births.

Only 40% of breastmilk samples had detectable chlordecone levels, however. The Karuprostate Study, which examined the correlation of chlordecone exposure with prostate cancer, showed a higher risk of prostate cancer in men with higher plasma chlordecone concentrations.

Guadeloupe climate and Global Climate Change

At the national level, in 2001 the French National Observatory for the Effects of Global Warming (ONERC) was set up, tasked specifically with adaptation to climate change. This was followed by the adoption of the French National Adaptation Strategy in 2006.

These both marked the beginning of French government activity in the area of climate change adaptation.

Since then, the first French National Plan for adaptation to climate change (2011-2015) has been put in place.

During the development of the Plan, the French Outermost Regions, including Guadeloupe, were consulted in order to ensure that the recommendations developed correctly addressed the challenges faced by the OR. As a result, the Plan responds to the needs of the French Outermost Regions even though it does not address them specifically.

 

reference – global security

recentclimate – Guadeloupe climate change and Disaster Affects

 

By JC

Consultation on Climate Change & Risk Management