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Ainsworth Saddler, Duty Forecaster, National Met Service, and Blaine Jarrett, Senior Vice President for Energy Delivery, JPS
The gust of wind that lifted roofs, knocked out power and sent pedestrians scurrying for cover on Monday was caused by a trough and low level jet stream that have been affecting the island over the last two weeks.
A video circulating on Social Media shows disturbed containers at one of the island's ports in Kingston.
Ainsworth Saddler, Duty Forecaster, told Radio Jamaica News that what occurred was a squall associated with an area of thunderstorm, "where you'd have rapid increase in wind speeds, and it is sustained for a brief period of time."
He said the weather phenomenon occurred across the south-east coast but later was also felt in the north-western section of the island, and was evident een at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.
"This is pretty much (a) typical feature for this time of the year," Mr Saddler explained.
With the storm causing significant electricity disruptions, the Jamaica Public Service said it is working feverishly to restore power to approximately 20,000 of the 50,000 customers affected by outages.
Blaine Jarrett, Senior Vice President for Energy Delivery at JPS, said the weather event brought unusually strong winds, which caused sporadic outages in several communities across Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester.
The power company is urging members of the public to exercise caution, especially around fallen wires, and to report outages or hazards using the JPS mobile app, website, or Customer Care Centre at 888-CALL-JPS.
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