More than 4,000 Filipinos educated on Weather 101, 792 weather stations rolled out
The journey to a #WeatherWiser nation has been gaining momentum as more than 4,000 Filipinos are now equipped with basic knowledge on weather, not only for disaster preparedness, but also to help evaluate its impact on businesses and socio-economic growth.
Private weather information provider Weather Philippines Foundation, Inc. reported 4,076 individuals have, so far, undergone its Weather 101 and Tropical Cyclone 101 programs by the end of 2016.
About 80% of the participants are from the public sector while the remaining 20% are from private partner organizations.
The program explains in layman language technical weather terminologies and shares weather knowledge necessary for effective decision-making and planning. Industries that are seen to benefit from this knowledge-sharing initiative are agriculture, energy, and tourism.
On top of trainings, the foundation made available through its newly launched website www.weatherph.org a 12-part video called #WeatherWiser Ka Na Ba? (Are you #WeatherWiser already?) that explains commonly used weather terminologies such as temperature and hit index, precipitation, monsoons, intertropical convergence zones, and other commonly used weather-related terms.
Early this year, WeatherPhilippines also launched through its new website an educational cartoon series called “#WeatherWizards,” which is specifically tailored for younger audiences. The new website also features daily weather updates and tropical cyclone updates complemented by ‘Weather TV,’ a tropical weather video analysis delivered by in-house typhoon specialists.
Meanwhile, the WeatherPhilippines mobile application which may be downloaded for free on both Android and Apple devices, will be introducing a new ‘push notification’ feature that will help users be updated on weather conditions of locations that matter to them.
These free, localized, and accurate weather information are made available through the 792 automated weather stations (AWS) that have been deployed by WeatherPhilippines in various parts of the country since 2012 – 467 in Luzon, 176 in Visayas, and 149 in Mindanao.
An AWS records a specific location’s rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, temperature, pressure, humidity, and global solar radiation. Information culled from the AWS are processed through the technology provided by Meteologix, an international weather information provider based in Switzerland.
As of end-2016, WeatherPhilippines reported that 577 partners and donors are currently supporting the nationwide deployment and maintenance of AWS in the Philippines.
