MET Service Utilising Technology to Strengthen Forecasting

The Meteorological Service of Jamaica (Met Service) is improving its forecasting ability through the acquisition of essential technology.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, said that the investment, which also aims to keep citizens informed, includes the acquisition of several automatic weather stations and collaboration with academia for the development of data-transfer technology.

He noted that the data-transfer system will allow the Met Service “to remotely retrieve and relay information about existing weather in real time to a monitoring platform within their offices and on mobile devices”.

He was speaking at the opening ceremony for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Regional Conference, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston on Monday (February 6).

The Minister further cited the acquisition of a Smart Alert web-based application that will “communicate multi-hazard warnings to all mobile phone users through a common alerting protocol using color-coded graphic messages”.

In addition, he noted that the country is in the process of installing its doppler radar, which is expected to be completed this year.

There is also the development of the weather-ready nations programme between the Met Service and the disaster management community to introduce impact-based weather forecasting for the benefit of all citizens, the Minister pointed out.

“Though peripheral, during the financial year 2022/2023, the Water Resources Authority (WRA) intends to complete its hydromet network, which will improve 10 gauging stations and expand real-time data platform,” he added.

The system is expected to improve the reporting of monitoring stations, which will provide up-to-the-minute data that can be immediately accessed for analysis.

Meanwhile, the Minister pointed to the Government’s proactiveness in the development of a climate change data node, “which will improve the decision-making process… in relation to climate change”.

“This data node will efficiently store, manage and provide access to climate-related data for all users, facilitating planning, efficient management of the island’s resources, and, indeed, promoting sustainable development,” Senator Samuda explained.

The WMO’s Regional Conference is being held from February 6 to 9 under the theme ‘Increasing Weather, Water and Climate Resilience in North America, Central America and the Caribbean’.

More than 60 participants from 20 member countries are attending the conference in-person, while others are participating via online platforms.

Several panel discussions are to take place on, among other things, challenges, opportunities, observations and building collaborations, during various sessions over the duration of the conference.