MET Office hosts Open Day

Yesterday was World Meteorological Day and to celebrate, the Barbados Meteorological Services, in conjunction with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), hosted an Open Day at the MET Office headquarters.

During an interview with the media, Semelka Jackman, a meteorologist at the MET Office and the co-ordinator of yesterday’s open day, expressed that they hosted the open day as a way to show the public what really goes on at the MET Office. She noted that they would have extended an invitation to different schools and other organisations, so that they could see what usually happens on an average daily basis.

“The theme for today is ‘Weather Ready, Climate Smart’ and we’re having the Open Day in conjunction with the CIMH. We thought that we could have this Open Day to show the public what we actually do at the MET Office as well as some other things related to meteorology and the theme,” she said.

“At the office, we do observations where we obviously observe what is going on with the weather, but we also monitor weather patterns not only over Barbados, but across the Atlantic, so that we could see what weather systems are coming in our direction.”

Jackman explained that there was also an aeronautical office, which means that they do not only deal with the weather for the public, but also for the airport and the airplanes as well.

“So when we do our observations and forecasts, we do that for the station as well so that the pilots would know what conditions are happening presently and what they expect to happen in the future,” she said.

She explained that each station would have touched on different aspects of weather and climate and hurricane preparedness as well as what they do on a day-to-day basis. She added that there was also a station that explained the history of meteorology and how they progressed as an office now through the advancement of the devices that they currently use to help decipher the weather patterns.