The state-of-the-art Doppler Weather Radar facility at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri which is expected to significantly boost the capacity of the Guyana Hydrometeorological Service, was officially commissioned on Monday.
The project was funded by the European Union, implemented by the Caribbean Meteorological Organization in Trinidad, and supported by the Guyana Government. The Doppler Radar is expected to boost the Guyana Hydrometeorological Service by providing up-to-the minute weather information,
Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud noted that the “Doppler Weather Radar” is a crucial milestone in the modernization of the Hydrometeorological Service.” He noted that the Ministry was envisaging that as it expanded, the Hydromet Service would soon centralize its entire operations to Hyde Park, Timehri.
Persaud said that the new generation of radar would complement our current hydrometeorological monitoring network and said that “it would provide continuous real-time coverage out to 400 kilometers from Timehri.
The Minister noted that the Doppler weather radar would allow forecasters to: “increase precision in defining the areas where severe weather is likely to form, Identify the characteristic patterns indicating a high probability of severe thunderstorms, Improve accuracy in forecasting the time, intensity and location of heavy precipitation and to provide timely and accurate information on approaching severe weather systems.”
According to him, “planners and policy makers in agriculture, water resources management, engineering, aviation, mining, sea defences and the public at large would also be provided with much needed real time weather information which will make a timely impact on security, civil defence and national development.”
“The Doppler radar will also have a crucial role to play in wider risk management strategies in agriculture”, Persaud said. He further stated that already discussions are ongoing with both local and international agencies regarding agriculture insurance instruments.
Meanwhile, Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington, in his address, pointed out that the initiative at Timehri was part of a wider regional initiative. Other radars are located in Barbados, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, Carrington noted. He stated that when these are added to the “weather radars already in existence in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana, they combine to complete the wider Caribbean Basin Weather Radar Network.”
He noted that he had signed on behalf of CARIFORUM, a Financing Agreement with the European Commission, which gave effect to a commitment from the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) of more than 13 million euros (in excess of US $ 18 million).
The Secretary General said that the “powerful radars, built in Germany, will provide continuous radar surveillance of all weather at various ranges”. Carrington added that one positive effect of this initiative is that “weather data would be made available to the public via the Internet”, which evidently represents a quantum leap for the Region, in terms of the early warning capability in the field of Meteorology”, he said.
Carrington told the gathering that the equipment would also be cost-effective and said that the expected cost savings in terms of damage prevention and reduction accruing from the new weather radar system are estimated to be about US$10 million per year.
The project was finally completed after several setbacks which had delayed the start even after the contract for its construction had been signed. Work on the Doppler radar eventually commenced in early 2007 and cost about $550 million.
