Hydromet Office to install automatic weather stations in interior to improve domestic aviation

In an attempt to improve hydrometeorological service in the hinterland regions, a whopping $275 million was allocated for the installation of automatic weather stations at 17 interior locations.
These areas include Mabaruma, Port Kaituma, Matthew’s Ridge, Orealla, Kamarang, Mahdia, Paramakatoi, and Lethem. These stations are expected to provide weather data on a 24-hour basis to the Hydromet Office, which will be beneficial to the aviation sector.
This is according to Chief Hydrometeorological Officer, Dr Garvin Cummings on Tuesday.
“These are all in the hinterland, in close proximity to hinterland airfields, to ensure that pilots traversing those routes will have adequate information to determine the best flight route to keep [individuals] and cargo safe as they travel to these hinterland locations,” Cummings Added.
With respect to marine services, about $50 million will be spent on the procurement and installation of two meteorological buoys offshore Guyana to provide meteorological and oceanographic data and information.
“This undoubtedly will enhance our services for fisherfolk and marine traffic as well as those concerned with coastal zone management and national defence and security,” Cummings said.
Further, 30 million will be spent to improve water quality modelling services to address biological and heavy metal testing capacities. This is in an effort to expand Hydromet’s Water Quality Laboratory to provide a wider range of services to its stakeholders.
With regards to agrometeorology – which largely refers to the use of weather data in improving crop production – Hydromet continues to collaborate with strategic partners to further improve their services within the agriculture sector.
“[Under] this initiative, farmers in every region have been taught how to use location-specific climate data and information to improve farm-level decision-making,” the Hydromet officer added. “This initiative continues to grow across the country.”
Cummings also added that over $15 million was invested towards improving the management of groundwater resources.
Additionally, over $30 million has been invested since 2021 to improve climate modelling capabilities. “This will allow us to expand the range of climate products available to our stakeholders to improve decision-making at a climate timescale,” Cummings said, adding that the department is hopeful that the products will be available by the first NCOF of 2024.
Hydromet Office has also benefited from other investments from the World Meteorological Organisation’s Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF).
“Guyana was recently selected from the first batch of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to benefit from grant support to improve our basic weather observational network,” Cummings said. “This will see an initial investment of US$170,000 that will help us to complete a gap analysis of weather network to determine what is required [on the international level.]”
This will also include a more comprehensive country Hydromet diagnostic that looks at the wider hydrometeorological services to examine where the weaknesses and gaps are, from which a report will be provided that will give recommendations for the modernisation of the department.
“These are all efforts made by the Government and our external partners to improve the quality of hydrometeorological services by improving decision-making at all levels to ensure that our country to the lines of climate change becomes resilient to withstand all of the impacts [or] at least to reduce the risk associated with extreme events,” Cummings concluded.