First cold front to arrive in the country over the weekend, lowering temperatures

Santo Domingo—A frontal system will affect the national territory starting this weekend, lowering temperatures.

This is the first cold front affecting the country after the end of the summer and at the end of the week in the north of the island, specifically over Haiti.

Claudio Amparo, forecaster of the National Office of Meteorology (Onamet), informed Diario Libre that this first cold front is a mass of cold air and that it will be strengthened by tropical storm Tammy, which is projected to the north of the Lesser Antilles.

“That north wind is going to bring cooler wind, because it will be enhanced by Tammy itself. It is combined with the cloudy field and that cold mass of the frontal system that is behind, it will begin to affect… for the weekend, a decrease in temperatures is already expected as that wind from the north begins to affect, and that colder mass will generate some more pleasant temperatures starting next Monday,” he said.

He added, “As of Monday, a fresh breeze from the north is already forecast, and an expected improvement in temperatures, which will drop a little.”

However, the forecaster detailed that “during the weekend we will have wind from the north due to the indirect effect, that is to say, it is possible that some of this air, this wind from the north will refresh the mountain area mainly, but from Monday onwards it will clear up quite a lot.”

Temperatures
When asked how much temperatures will drop, Amparo explained that the mountain area will be slightly cooler.

However, he recalled, “We are still in autumn and not even in winter.”

For this Thursday, a minimum in Constanza is forecast between 16 °C and 18 °C and a maximum between 24 °C and 26 °C. In this regard, he said that these temperatures will continue to drop by the weekend.

What are cold fronts?
A cold front is formed when a mass of cold air collides with a group of warm air because, being denser, the cold air gets under the warm air, causing temperature drops, according to the National Water Commission of Mexico.

Rains
The Onamet forecasts that this Saturday, the cloud fields of the frontal system to the north of the island and the moderate wind from the northeast, associated with the indirect effects of tropical storm Tammy, will cause scattered showers and abnormal swells on the Atlantic coast.

Rainfall is expected mainly over the northwest, north, northeast, northeast, east, and the Central Cordillera.

Hottest summer in history
Last Saturday, September 23, the summer of 2023 ended, considered the hottest summer on Earth since the establishment of world temperature records in 1880.

Data offered to Diario Libre by the Climatology Department of the Onamet about the temperatures in the country in 2023 indicate that the maximum temperature registered last July was 39.2 °C in Jimaní on the 12th of that month.

That month, high temperatures of 38.6 °C were recorded on the 30th in Montecristi, 38 °C in Barahona on July 12, and 38 °C in Puerto Plata on the 22nd.

Meanwhile, in June, the highest temperature was in Montecristi when, on the 12th of that month, it registered 38.5 °C, which reported 38 °C on the 28th, and Puerto Plata noted 38 °C on the 10th.