Caye Caulker Welcomes Weather Station

As Belize moves further into the hurricane season, the need for timely and accurate weather updates remains a priority for the National Meteorological Service. Throughout the country, the Met Service is working to install weather stations for more detailed data and today Caye Caulker welcomed its very own. News Five’s Britney Gordon attended the opening ceremony earlier and learned what this means for residents of the island.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Earlier this year, Central America and the Caribbean waited with bated breath to see where Hurricane Beryl would make landfall. As a precaution, over two thousand residents evacuated the islands of Caye Caulker and San Pedro in anticipation of the category two storm. While Belizeans on the mainland braced for the potential impact, many islanders were not willing to take the risk.

 

Kristian Puerto, San Pedro Resident

“The last one that hit was just a tropical storm. And this is the first major hurricane that I’m going to have to be evacuating from the island. And yes, I’ve noticed a lot of people, especially a lot of people from the, from mainland Belize. They’re kind of evacuate the islands.”

 

 

 

With the latter half of the hurricane season fast approaching, the need for accurate and timely weather updates is important for every Belizean. That is why, today residents of Caye Caulker celebrate the newly installed weather station.

 

 

 

 

Andre Perez, Minister of Blue Economy

“This weather station is being inaugurated here in Caye Caulker, is actually very important, but at the same time symbolic because it is representing all the different weather stations that are being installed. All across the country. And of course we choose a beautiful Caye Caulker to highlight it and that the amount of money is being invested and hundreds of thousand dollars US dollars for this project. And that culminates here today. And as was given up at the description of the where station, the vital data that it shares across this country and across the world and in real time. It’s really important puts us at the cutting edge and especially when it comes to being informed in terms of when weather patterns are coming towards our country.”

 

There are approximately seven other weather stations placed strategically throughout the country, with an average cost of three hundred thousand dollars each. The project is financed through the Green Environment Fund from the World Bank with the intention of assisting countries in collecting data for climate resilience initiatives.

 

 

 

Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer

“People always want precise information. Even with the forecast, they’re always asking us to give us the forecast specifically for this area. So having a weather station on the ground will assist us in that area. To be able to more precisely see what’s happening in Caye Caulker and what is likely to happen in the future.”

 

 

The station has capabilities to record standard weather conditions such as wind speed, and rainfall but it is also equipped to detect solar radiation levels. This data is available for all to access through the Belize Weather app that is available for download to Android users and coming to IOS soon.

 

 

 

Andre Perez

“You will actually see the real information coming in because of here and that information is actually coming from that weather station. So as it relates to the village in terms of weather patterns, what is going to come fishing or snorkeling, diving or for an event, especially now, Caye Caulker is always very busy on weekends. And when the summer comes at all events, it is important to make their plans according to what the weather.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.