Officials from the Dominican Institute of Meteorology (Indomet) have released an updated weather advisory warning that significant unstable atmospheric conditions will bring widespread wet, stormy weather to multiple regions of the Dominican Republic through the end of this weekend. The event kicks off on Friday, when a low-pressure trough moving through the area will trigger heavy rain, thunderstorms, and sudden isolated gusty winds across large swathes of the country.
Forecasters outlined that the day will start with scattered light showers and isolated thunderstorm activity concentrated along the nation’s Caribbean coastline during the early morning hours. As local heating and atmospheric interactions interact with the approaching trough through the afternoon and into early evening, precipitation will intensify dramatically. By the peak of the storm activity, intense downpours, sustained thunderstorm activity, and gusty wind conditions will impact the country’s southeast, northeast, the Central Mountain Range, and all regions along the Dominican-Haitian border.
The wet weather will not clear on Friday night, however. Indomet forecasts that a second weather system, an approaching tropical wave, will move into the area and extend the rainy conditions through Saturday. Morning showers are expected to develop first across a long list of provinces, including popular tourist destinations La Altagracia (home to Punta Cana) and La Romana, as well as San Pedro de Macorís, Hato Mayor, the national capital district of Santo Domingo, San Cristóbal, Peravia, Samaná, María Trinidad Sánchez and Duarte. As the tropical wave advances further inland through Saturday afternoon, rainfall coverage and intensity will increase across most of the Dominican Republic, bringing an extended period of unsettled weather to the entire nation.