Four state-of-the-art weather stations have been installed in various areas of Bahrain as part of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications comprehensive strategy to develop and advance weather forecast information in the Kingdom, Ahmed Al Nemah, Acting Undersecretary for Civil Aviation Affairs at MTT, said.
The stations were installed at the King Fahad Causeway to cover the western area, Durrat Al Bahrain to cover the southern district, the Coastguard Base in Sitra to cover the eastern side, and a portable station that can be mobilized as necessary.
"The new stations are capable of measuring weather elements such as temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, wind speed, wind gust, barometric pressure, precipitation, solar radiation, ultraviolet radiation and sea temperature," he said.
"The stations are also equipped with special cameras to monitor clouds and horizontal visibility. Such information is transmitted to the Metrological Operations Centre via the 3G system for use in monitoring climate and weather forecasts and is automatically downloaded in a database for future weather studies and scientific research," he said.
The stations are operated by solar energy, making them environmentally-friendly.
Information obtained from the stations will assist MTT Meteorological Directorate in providing better services for protection of life and property. The information will be available online via www.bahrainweather.gov.bh.
Al Nemah said the main justification for the installation of the automatic weather stations is to increase coverage of the weather forecast network in Bahrain in response to requirements by the World Metrological Organization, to enhance accuracy of the weather forecast, expand on climatic information, and to contribute to measuring global warming.
"The next stage of the project will involve linking Bahrain's stations to those of the GCC States, as part of the proposed numerical weather prediction project in the near future, which will be one of the main initiatives to be undertaken by the Ministry," he said.
The portable weather station will be used to assist in local and national events requiring forecast services, such as Bahrain International Airshow, the Gulf Air Formula 1 Grand Prix and other important events held in the Kingdom, he said.