Monday, February 21, 2011

Automatic weather stations for Aklan to benefit farmers, fishermen
BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – The installation of automatic weather stations (AWS) in Aklan would serve as early warning system for typhoons and other extreme weather conditions.
Engr. John Kenneth Almalbis of Aklan Environment and Natural Resources Office (AKENRO) said the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) Secretary Mario Montejo through its weather forecasting arm has initiated the installation of automatic weather stations in 85 strategic sites across the country.
Aklan is among the first provinces identified by DoST for the AWS project that would help local farmers and fishermen prepared for adverse weather conditions, including threats from heavy rains.
In June 2008, the province was badly hit by Typhoon Frank, leaving tens of thousands homeless. Every year, low-lying areas along the Aklan River are periodically inundated by flood waters.
The weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), in the first leg of the project, recently conducted onsite assessment and validation to install two sets of automatic weather stations in the campus of Aklan State University (ASU) in Ibajay, Aklan in the north and in the Goding Ramos Park in Estancia, this town, in the eastern areas.
“The state-of-the-art automatic weather stations will measure the atmospheric pressure, air temperature, relative humidity and rainfall amount. The on-time weather data registered by the automatic weather stations will be send to the PAGASA main office and posted for better access by end-users through a website,” Almalbis said.
Each automatic weather station also has sensors to measure wind speed, wind direction and solar radiation intensity and equipments such as 10-meter guyed steel tower, data logger, GSM modem, solar panels and solar panel controller/charger and backup battery.
PAGASA boosts its forecasting capability by increasing the number of weather instruments such as AWS, river sensors and rain gauges. The weather stations, which use developed innovations of technologies, automatically send rainfall data and real time weather updates to PAGASA.

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