7 Jul 2017

Vanuatu first to get automated weather monitors

1:20 pm on 7 July 2017

Vanuatu has become the first island country in the Pacific to set up automated weather monitoring stations.

Vanuatu met officers monitor automated stations

Vanuatu met officers monitor automated stations Photo: Vanuatu Daily Post

The first two stations are at Analcauhat on Aneityum Island and at Whitegrass International Airport on Tanna Island.

Robson Siro of the Ministry of Climate Change says the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environmental Facility is to fund a total of six automated stations to provide early warning of natural disasters.

Mr Siro said under the manual system, officers checked the instruments every three hours.

He said with the new system, all relevant data on an el nino system, cyclones, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and other data is automatically updated and sent to the Ministry in Port Vila every ten minutes.