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Society - Economic benefits of meteorology and hydrology

by Mr Carlos Fuller, Chief Meteorologist, Belize Meteorological Service. The text was originally presented at the Regional Seminar for Decision Makers organised by the SIDS-Caribbean Project at Almond Beach Resort, St. James, Barbados, 15&16 April 2004

Disaster Preparedness from the Early Days

Traditional meteorological observations in the Caribbean date back several centuries when mariners began using barometers to give them some idea of the type of weather to expect.  When these seafarers decided to settle down, they took their barometers onshore and continued to use them to provide information on approaching storms. The British Royal Society was so impressed with the barometer that in 1668 it resolved to have these instruments installed throughout the world. (That plan never materialized, but many individuals procured their own and the practice of reading barometers spread around the world.) When the plantation industry developed in the islands, the landowners recognized the importance of rainfall in providing an outlook on the yield of their crops. There were no standards for these weather observations. They were not compiled or shared or analyzed. The exception was on the island of Cuba. There the Jesuits under the guidance of Father Benito Vines used the weather observations, especially the movement and shapes of clouds to infer the location of hurricanes and predict their movement. Following the devastation of the City of Galveston in 1900 by a hurricane, the Government of the United States of America established several weather observing stations in the Caribbean to provide them with weather data. The telegraph had been invented in the late 1800s and the data could be transmitted to a central location where weather maps could be plotted. Weather patterns emerged on these charts and the systems could be tracked from one chart to the next. The Caribbean had begun contributing to the preparation of weather forecasts for the United States.

Today, the weather information provided by the meteorological community plays a vital role in the safety of the Caribbean people. Learn more about disaster preparedness in the Caribbean!

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