The Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS) welcomes you to join us as we celebrate World Meteorological Day under the theme: At the frontlines of climate action.
As the national entity for issuing forecast and alerts for the various Meteorological and Hydrological hazards that affect our small island and marine space, we understand the BMS’ very critical role in addressing the impacts of climate change.
The BMS has extensively improved its observational and modelling capacity over the past five years as we seek to provide our country with more impacts focused alerts and improve accuracy of forecast.
The introduction of over 90 Automatic Weather Stations across the island, has enabled us to provide information on meteorological variables such as rainfall and temperature changes across the island for every parish.
Flash-floods are no strangers to Barbados and the installation of water level sensors at some of our waterways enables us to provide valuable information on the height of flood waters at a few locations, while providing data on how effective current mitigation efforts have been. These sensors also give us the ability to measure changes in tidal variations along some of our coastlines.
Going beyond land observations, the BMS has introduced four unmanned sea-surface drones to capture marine data and information on tropical systems that pose a threat to this island nation. Data from all of these instruments are not only meant to feed our forecast models, therefore providing even more accurate predictions but also to build future datasets for research and verification on the changes experienced on a local scale.
Understanding the impacts from systems that have impacted Barbados in recent years, such as Tropical Storm Bret in 2023 and Hurricane Elsa in 2021, the Met Services’ push towards tackling climate change and the increasing variability also involves an active engagement with our stakeholders and the wider community.
By engaging in conversations with the public, the BMS is in a position to provide more tailored, sector specific forecast and climate services and communicate meteorological information more effectively. Our engagement with the media ensures that alerts reach all members of society, regardless of vulnerabilities.
In keeping with its outreach initiative, the BMS commenced celebrations for World Meteorological Day this year with a Church Service and a coastal hike on March 17. Celebrations will culminate on Saturday, March 23, (World Meteorological Day) with an Expo held at its Charnocks, Christ Church location from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
This Expo will give a tour of the BMS Operations office with insight into the department’s equipment, including its 3D Printed Stations and Sea Surface Drones along with its forecasting models. It will also feature exhibitions from various partnering agencies such as the Barbados Water Authority, Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and the Department of Emergency Management, to name a few. Running concurrently, will be a Scavenger Hunt from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for the adventure lovers.
We welcome you all to come out and enjoy the activities as you learn about our weather, water and climate and interact with staff of the Met Office. This is a wonderful opportunity for all, as we stand together at the frontlines of climate action.
Minister Of Home Affairs And Information, Wilfred Abrahams