Mr.Sabu Best, Meteorologist / Software Developer, Barbados Meteorological Services

1. Mr.Sabu Best, Meteorologist / Software Developer, Barbados Meteorological Services (sabubest@barbadosweather.org) RA-IV WIGOS Implementation Workshop (English), 1 - 3 December, Willemstad Curaçao Barbados

2. Outline of the presentation • Mission of the NMHS • National Observing Issues or Needs • Plans for the observing networks • WIGOS Implementation Status • Summary

3. Mission of the BMS • Mission: To observe and understand the weather and climate of Barbados and the region. Provide meteorological, hydrological and marine services in support of the national needs and international obligations.

4. MANDATE • To take meteorological observations and to provide current forecast and meteorological information for the most favorable operation of activities which can be affected by the weather such as agriculture, maritime activities and aviation.

5. MANDATE • To warn against severe weather phenomena like tropical cyclones and heavy rains etc., which can cause destruction of life and property. • To provide meteorological statistics required for agriculture and water resource management • To act as a focal point for tsunami warnings

6. Responsibilities • Providing and analyzing data for monthly climat outlook for Barbados and contributions to the eastern Caribbean climat outlook. • Providing aviation products for regional and international flights. By first quarter of 2016 all aviation data will be available online at higher vertical and horizontal resolutions.

7. Responsibilities • Providing software to some regional countries to enable transfer of BUFR data to NWS • Generation of CMO Caribbean radar composite for distribution via gifs server • Providing full Caribbean radar data for Dewetra platform ( CIMH )

8. Responsibilities

9. Responsibilities Barbados,St.Vincent and Dominica • Daily weather and marine forecast • Terminal areodrome forecast • Special bullentins,watches and warnings

10. Major historical meteorological disaster events • Hurricane Janet in 1955. Total deaths 38 and 5 million US in damages. • Hurricane Allen in 1980. Total deaths 0 and 6 million Us in damages. • Tropical storm Tomas 2010. Total deaths 0 and 8.5 million US in damages.

11. Staff composition • 14 Meteorological Assistants ( Observers ) Main objective is collection and monitoring of data. Plotting of surface and upper air charts. Observers are comprised of qualified class 4 and 3 training from CIMH • 2 Senior Meteorological Assistants. Main objective is to oversee the timely and accurate monitoring and collection of data. Tabulation, quality checking and producing data for climat purposes. Class 3 training from CIMH.

12. Staff composition • 7 Meteorologist: Providing short term, extended and climat forecast for Barbados and its dependencies.Analyses of surface and upper air charts. Use and understanding of numerical models. Individuals are class 2 or class 1 ( BSc ) from CIMH/UWI. • Administration of Director, Deputy Director and senior Meteorologist ( class 1 )

13. Staff composition • 1 Electrical engineer: Oversees the maintenance and repair to radar, automatic weather stations,satellite ground equipment and radiosonde equipment. • 1 Standby Electrical engineer who currently acts as a Meteorologist as well. ( BSc in Electronics )

14. Staff composition • 2 Software engineers/IT specialist: Development and maintenance of new software for day to day running of BMS. (BSc. (Hons) Computer Science )

15. WIGOS Implementation Status • Status of the WMO-reported national observing networks • the Barbados Meteorological Services has not made any steps towards putting into place an implementation plan to launch national observing networks for the island. - It has been recommended to the BMS administration that CIMH can act as the national database for our observing network. - A new focal point of contact has not been assigned to this project since my stepping down in 2013.

16. Plans for the National Observing Networks • Barbados Meteorological Services administration insist on waiting until after the meeting before proceeding on any plans for implementing the national observing network.

17. WIGOS Implementation Status • The Barbados Meteorological Services currently has no WIGOS implementation plan in place. • Until such a plan can be drafted any recommending training needs cannot be specified at this time.

18. WIGOS Implementation Status • Our QMS is still in the process of being drafted. Work on our QMS system started over 2 years ago and is still being drafted at this time. There is currently no estimated time of publication.

19. Summary The BMS ( Barbados Meteorological Services ) Urgently needs to draft an implementation plan for WIGOS and the National Observing network. They are hoping that even though we are behind in progress from the slated WIGOS timeline, that after this meeting and at a future WIGOS meeting that they would have implemented a plan of action and would have made significant progress in relation to the National observing network.