The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

CHIEF Climatological Officer at the Department of Meteorology Michael Stubbs said yesterday that Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival will not be “a complete washout” as was originally predicted.

In fact, Mr Stubbs said weather conditions in New Providence will see a marked improvement by Thursday evening and Carnival activities should not be negatively affected.

His comments came two days after Paul Major, the Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC) chairman, told The Tribune that organisers are “praying and keeping (their) fingers crossed” that the weather clears up before the start of festivities Thursday evening.

Earlier this week, forecasters predicted an 80 per cent chance of rain on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the three days of the festival.

The likelihood of rain has now been significantly reduced to 20 per cent, according to weather.com.

“Given the models and projection, we had the weekend washed out but we reanalysed and checked our data based on what has happened and now there has been a vast improvement,” Mr Stubbs said.

“We have some dry air that is infiltrating the weather system and taking out the moisture and dissipating the system. This means the potential rainfall has now been changed and it does not appear that we will have the bad weather as we initially predicted. It will rain on Thursday but New Providence will get some relief Thursday night and onward. There is a chance of passing showers (this weekend) but it will not be a wash out. We do not anticipate heavy downpour so this is a marked improvement.”

Carnival activities are expected to kick off today with the opening of the Cultural Village and the Rake ‘n Scrape Stage at noon followed by the opening ceremony at 6.30pm.

The Music Masters competition and concert will take place on Friday at 8pm followed by Junkamania, a Junkanoo rush-out, at 2am and the Road Fever parade at 11am on Saturday.

The government proposed to spend $9m on the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival.

Prime Minister Perry Christie has said that the government expects to generate $30m for the Bahamas’ economy from the event.

Last month, Mr Major told The Tribune that an estimated 30,000 people attended Junkanoo Carnival’s kick off in Grand Bahama. According to a subsequent BNFC report, the event in Freeport had a total economic impact of $5.2m, with a gross domestic product (GDP) impact of just over $20m.

Mr Major said based on the success of carnival in Freeport, he believed the festivities in New Providence will be “fantastic.” He said that there was “no question” that the event would draw up to 40,000 to 50,000 people in Nassau from May 7 to 9.

In an interview with Tribune Business, he said the festival would exceed Mr Christie’s initial projections of a $30m impact on GDP.