Tropical Storm Harvey swept across Barbados leaving some minor wind damage and extensive but short-lived flooding. Some 115mm of rain was caught at Grantley Adams airport in the dark hours of Friday morning and Speightstown, in the northwest of the island, seems to have been particularly badly affected by the flooding.

The winds have never been more than 65km/h as measured by satellite and the reports from Barbados do not suggest anything stronger. This caused some minor wind damage and flights between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago were suspended for a while.

Barbados can often see the edges of hurricanes but is rarely hit. The last damaging hit was in October 2010 when Hurricane Tomas caused $8.5m worth of damage but fortunately no deaths. Prior to that the only direct hit recorded was in 1980 when 500 homes were destroyed by Hurricane Allen but again, no deaths were reported.

This year's apparently favoured cyclone route from the Windward Isles westwards towards Nicaragua is in use again. Although Harvey is not expected to become a hurricane it will bring torrential downpours with it and has the potential to throw heavy rain at the "ABC" islands off the coast of Venezuela.

The name Harvey has been used six times since Atlantic tropical cyclones were first named, having first been used in 1981. Names are reused unless the damage caused by the associated tropical cyclone was devastating. Katrina will not be used again.