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This meteorologist explained to these visitors how they collect data from
looking at the sky.

MET Office excited about new technology

THE technology that the Barbados Meteorological Services would have used over the years has changed significantly and they are particularly excited about a new piece of equipment that they have received a few weeks ago – a 3D printer.

Speaking with the media recently at their Open Day, acting Director of the MET Office, Sonia Nurse, expressed that the 3D printer is the future of the way they receive and gather information across the island.

“3D Printing is something new that has been introduced to the MET Office within the last two or three weeks. We had a weather ready nations workshop here, which was sponsored by USAID and some other entities in the US,” she said.

“Actually, we had about five workshops spanning from last year and the most recent one a week or two ago and as a part of that workshop, we were presented with the 3D printer. This printer would aid us in printing some of the products that you would use in mete-orology to monitor the weather; things like the rain gauges and anemometers.”

She noted that this was something new introduced to them and explained that it would then allow them to print these automatic weather stations, so that they could be used across the country to help them gather more information.

“Right now we are in the process of printing some of those stations. I think we would have three completed and we hope to get more equipment to do more printing in the next few months,” she said.

“Hopefully we can then deploy some of these automatic weather stations to some schools and other persons who would be interested in collecting MET information for us. The more information we have across the country, the better we are able to give a better forecast.

Semelka Jackman, a meteorologist at the MET Office and the co-ordinator of the open day, expressed how proud she was to see how the technology would have changed over the years. She revealed that in the earlier days they would have used quite a bit of paper, however, the amount of paper used now has significantly decreased as they monitor most of the systems online. (CLF)

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