THE RELATION BETWEEN A DAILY CLIMATIC WATER BUDGET AND WATER LEVELS ON SAN SALVADOR ISLAND, BAHAMAS

A Meteorological Observation Network (MON) was established on the island of San Salvador, Bahamas January 2001. This network produced a continuous record of weather variables over 2001 that was used to characterize climate variations for the year. Precipitation and temperature records supplied by this network were used to produce a daily climatic water budget. This analysis shows that this island, centrally located within the Bahamian archipelago, lies within a climate where the potential for evaporation exceeds the amount of water supplied for the environment. Additionally, a correlation between relative water level measurements with the water budget and precipitation values was used to determine the response of this carbonate island aquifer to input from precipitation. Initial results indicate that tidal variability has a greater influence on water levels than meteorological variability.