(Trinidad Express) The Doppler weather radar facility installed in the Central Range to provide real-time tracking of severe weather is not working.
The radar, at Brasso Venado, Tabaquite, broke down last year after being struck by lightning, and was of no use yesterday when the feeder bands of Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened over Trinidad and brought torrential rain and strong winds. The bad weather triggered flash floods, landslides and felled trees.
The radar is part of a $115 million project funded by the European Union to provide coverage of the Caribbean.
The radar was handed over to the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service (TTMS) in February 2011.
Science and technology officer of the Caribbean Meteorology Organisation (CMO), Glendell De Souza, said the meteorological office at Piarco had been receiving data from the radar since October 2008.
TTMS acting director Marlon Noel told the Express yesterday that the radar broke down “late last year”, but TTMS technicians were working to have the it up and running.
Some parts had to be shipped into the country from the United States.
Noel said the technicians are local people who were trained in Germany to deal specifically with the radar.
The radar is a facility that is part of a regional network meant to track the incoming severe weather systems, with other radars at Barbados, Guyana and Belize.
According to the website http://www.noaa.gov of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration of the United States, there have been six storms in the Atlantic thus far.
The website issued an updated hurricane season outlook, which indicated 12 to 17 named storms , five to eight hurricanes and a possibility of two to three major hurricanes of category Three, Four 4 or Five, with winds of at least 111 miles per hour.
