Understanding weather advisories should be much easier for Barbadians this hurricane season.
Meteorologists with the Barbados Meteorological Service made that prediction Thursday when they announced changes to the website which are expected to take effect next month for the start of the Atlantic Hurricane season.
During a Zoom meeting on Impact-Based Forecasting, acting senior meteorologist Semelka Jackman said that the language would be easier to understand and help people improve preparedness.
“Sometimes, we do give a forecast and the way in which we communicate it to the public, it appears not to be as accurate, so with Impact-Based Forecasting the language tells you what to expect impact-wise and tells you how to respond.
“There may have been cases where I might have done a forecast, and I knew what I forecast actually happened but you as the user didn’t understand what I was saying because of the language barrier, so now with this, it would make the forecast more ‘accurate’ because you actually understand,” Jackman said.
Similarly, director Sabu Best said that it would allow them to provide updated information faster.
“It’s not going to help us to write accurate forecasts in terms of the impact, however, it helps us to update you more as the situation evolves.
“Instead of one forecast or one bulletin, we will be, on an ongoing basis, updating the forecast as the situation unfolds so that all users can see near real time, what to expect and how we should respond,” he said.
In addition, he said the information will be detailed, and in some models percentages and colour-coded systems would be utilised.
“The public can see the likelihood of that system occurring and if there is a low percentage, that tells you there is a little bit of uncertainty in the development. And so, as time goes on, you have to keep watching to see if that likelihood increases and see if we elevate the warning or make adjustments.
“When more data comes in and we’re all in agreement that things are getting a lot closer, then the confidence increases and it’s close to 100 per cent and, it’s red,” he said.
If all goes well, the new site will be available to the public by June 1. But Best said there was the possibility there could be a slight delay. (TG)
Download the Telegram app from the App Store or Play Store and sign up for new alerts at this link.
