MET Service To Launch Bush Fire Warning Index March 23

The Meteorological Service Division (Met Service) will officially launch the Bush Fire Warning Index on World Meteorological Day, March 23.

Establishment of the Bush Fire Warning Index and Management System began in 2019, with the Met Service and Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) compiling information on bush fire occurrences to create a pre-emptive tool for their prediction.

“We are now at the end stage of this project, and we are launching the Index. It is a customised index that is going to speak to how we recognise that bush fires are likely to develop because of climatic conditions,” said Director of the Met Service, Evan Thompson.

He was speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, on March 21, sharing the Met Service’s plans for the commemoration of World Meteorological Day.

Mr. Thompson pointed out that the Bush Fire Warning Index began in two pilot communities in St. Elizabeth and Clarendon – parishes known for cases of bush fires.

In these communities the Met Service established weather stations, collected data and held engagement sessions with the community. Weather and climate-related data are uploaded to computers at fire stations and corroborated with fire-related data from the JFB.

The Met Service hopes to expand pilot activities in more communities as it further develops the existing Bush Fire Warning Index to make it available to the entire island.

“We have already had a development [of the Index] but this is also being fine-tuned for a total rollout, right across the country where the communities will get the information through the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA),” Mr. Thompson said.

“We have already started passing information to them where we are giving them the forecast of bush fire likelihood across the island on a monthly basis, and the Fire Brigade is going to be prepositioned in order to deal with these. So, they have a strong community-service base, where they also interact with the communities and inform them of the likelihood and how they can help to protect these areas,” he added.

The launch of the Bush Fire Warning Index on World Meteorological Day is significant as the theme for this year’s commemoration is ‘Early Warning and Early Action’, highlighting the important part hydrometeorological and climate information plays in disaster risk reduction.

The Index will be launched at the University of the West Indies, Mona, on March 23 at 10:00 a.m.