SmartAlert To Provide Prompt Warning About Hazards

The Meteorological Service of Jamaica (Met Service) is developing a SmartAlert programme, which will provide prompt notifications to citizens about various hazards that could affect their area.

Director of the Met Service, Evan Thompson, told JIS News that SmartAlert enables persons to receive instant warnings, through their smartphone or laptop, about flash flooding, hurricane activity and bushfires.

He said that each alert will be colour-coded to give an indication of the severity of the hazard.

The programme is being developed through partnership with the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

SmartAlert is a by-product of the SmartMet software, which is currently being used by the Met Service in its computing and visualisation of meteorological data.

Head of Group, International Projects at the FMI, Matti Eerikäinen, told JIS News that the SmartMet software, which was introduced to the Met Service over a decade ago, will be updated to facilitate the creation of SmartAlert.

The FMI will also provide further training for the Met Service staff in the use of the updated software, in keeping with the Institute’s mandate to share knowledge around the world and to develop the weather forecasts and early warning services in developing countries.

“On one hand, we feel that it’s important to improve the services here in Jamaica but, also, to improve the national services to strengthen the global meteorological community and, eventually, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The stronger the national meteorological services are, the stronger the global weather services will be,” Eerikäinen said.

The Met Service hopes to complete the programme before year-end.

SmartAlert forms part of the larger ‘Building Resilience Through Climate Adaptation Technologies (BReTCAT)’ project, which is being undertaken by the Met Service, FMI, United Kingdom-based Resurgence, and the Caribbean Climate Innovation Centre.

BReTCAT is designed to strengthen the capacity of the Met Service to forecast and convey weather information to the public.

It entails, among other things, upgrading the entity’s forecasting processes, and making those forecasts and warnings available to the public in a way that is easily understood and can be quickly acted upon.