CAR­I­FO­RUM mem­ber states are be­com­ing bet­ter equipped to col­lect, store, and an­a­lyze hy­dro-me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal da­ta that will form much of the ev­i­dence base to sup­port build­ing re­silience to weath­er and cli­mate haz­ards in the re­gion, as well as glob­al mon­i­tor­ing of cli­mate change.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from CIMH—the Caribbean In­sti­tute for Me­te­o­rol­o­gy and Hy­drol­o­gy Re­gion­al Cli­mate Cen­tre for the Caribbean—the strength­ened ca­pac­i­ty is a re­sult of a re­cent five-day work­shop for rep­re­sen­ta­tives of na­tion­al hy­dro-me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal ser­vices (NHMSs) from 16 Caribbean coun­tries.

The train­ing and equip­ment were pro­vid­ed to NHMS staff across CAR­I­FO­RUM un­der the Eu­ro­pean Union In­tra African, Caribbean, and Pa­cif­ic Group of States (ACP) Glob­al Cli­mate Change Al­liance Plus (EU In­tra-ACP GC­CA+) Project, which is be­ing man­aged by the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Cli­mate Change Cen­tre (CC­C­CC).

The Project ad­dress­es me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal and hy­dro­log­i­cal needs across the re­gion through tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance that will fur­ther en­hance cli­mate ob­ser­va­tion in CAR­I­FO­RUM States to sup­port the de­vel­op­ment and use of cli­mate prod­ucts and ser­vices that lead to im­proved sec­toral plan­ning and de­ci­sion-mak­ing plan­ning.

The vir­tu­al course took place from 25 to 29 April 2022 and drew 60 reg­is­tra­tions. The train­ing was led by the Caribbean In­sti­tute for Me­te­o­rol­o­gy and Hy­drol­o­gy (CIMH), in its role as one of the Project's im­ple­ment­ing agen­cies that pro­vides tech­ni­cal and in­struc­tion­al sup­port.

“Hy­dro-me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal ser­vices play a crit­i­cal role in en­sur­ing Caribbean small is­land de­vel­op­ing states are in­formed of weath­er and cli­mate haz­ards ahead of time so that they can pre­pare and pro­tect our so­ci­eties and economies from ad­verse im­pacts. CIMH is pleased to part­ner with the CC­C­CC un­der the EU In­tra-ACP GC­CA+ Project to in­crease the ca­pac­i­ty of these na­tion­al-lev­el weath­er and cli­mate au­thor­i­ties so that they can de­liv­er and an­a­lyze more ac­cu­rate and time­ly in­for­ma­tion that their gov­ern­ments and sec­tors can use to re­duce vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and bring bet­ter out­comes in dis­as­ter risk re­duc­tion,” said Dr. David Far­rell, Prin­ci­pal of CIMH.

Dur­ing the train­ing, par­tic­i­pants learned how to use and main­tain the new au­to­mat­ic weath­er sta­tions (AWS) that con­tin­u­ous­ly record weath­er and cli­mate-re­lat­ed vari­ables in­clud­ing tem­per­a­ture, rain­fall, rel­a­tive hu­mid­i­ty, wind speed, and wind di­rec­tion with some sta­tions hav­ing ad­di­tion­al sen­sors to col­lect soil mois­ture and soil tem­per­a­ture.

One of the par­tic­i­pants Janelle Gar­raway McPher­son, Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Tech­ni­cian – In­stru­men­ta­tion at the Do­mini­ca Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice, Com­mon­wealth of Do­mini­ca, ex­pressed sat­is­fac­tion with the train­ing.

“The train­ing fo­cused on best prac­tices for in­stal­la­tion main­te­nance, mon­i­tor­ing, and col­lec­tion of the weath­er da­ta that the sta­tions will pro­vide. While some in­for­ma­tion served as time­ly re­minders there was a lot to be learned es­pe­cial­ly in this age of de­vel­op­ing tech­nol­o­gy,” she said.

Govin­da Au­gustin, Se­nior Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Tech­ni­cian at the Saint Lu­cia Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice, who al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in the train­ing, not­ed:

"I came out of this train­ing feel­ing more con­fi­dent in my task to in­stall the au­to­mat­ic weath­er sta­tion pro­vid­ed to my coun­try. I al­so have a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of how to in­ter­pret the da­ta that will be col­lect­ed."

Ac­cord­ing to the CC­C­CC Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor, Dr Col­in Young, this boost to the par­tic­i­pants’ ca­pac­i­ty will en­hance the qual­i­ty of the Caribbean re­gion’s abil­i­ty to use cli­mate da­ta to re­spond to cli­mate vari­abil­i­ty and change.

“The Caribbean is at the front­line of the cli­mate emer­gency and one of the most vul­ner­a­ble re­gions in the world to hy­dro-me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal events such as floods, droughts, trop­i­cal storms, and hur­ri­canes that are in­creas­ing in fre­quen­cy and in­ten­si­ty be­cause of cli­mate change. As such, ac­cess, avail­abil­i­ty, and use of cli­mate-re­lat­ed da­ta are in­dis­pens­able to ev­i­dence-based de­ci­sion­mak­ing and re­silience build­ing in our Mem­ber States. We are most pleased to have part­nered with the CIMH to de­liv­er this need­ed and time­ly train­ing,” Dr Young stat­ed.

At the con­clu­sion of the train­ing, par­tic­i­pants re­ceived cer­tifi­cates of par­tic­i­pa­tion.

For more in­for­ma­tion, vis­it https://www.caribbean­cli­mate.bz/blog/2021/04/07/2019-2023-in­traacp-gc­ca-pro­gramme-in-the-caribbean-en­hanc­ing-cli­mate-re­silience-in-car­i­fo­rum-coun­tries/