Weathermen predict better forecasts with new radar

With a new Doppler radar in Catanduanes, the weather bureau can now predict the path and determine the power of typhoons more accurately.

As a result, the provinces in regions that are in the usual path of typhoons will get earlier warnings, giving them time to prepare and avoid disaster.

And the improved capability of the weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Administration (Pagasa) will expand in the next two years, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said in a statement released on Friday.

In that statement, Science Secretary Mario Montejo said Doppler radars would be installed in Aparri, Cagayan, in December and in Guiuan, Samar, in September 2013.

“The Doppler radar serves as a sentinel,” Montejo said. “It is always on guard to provide valuable info on an incoming typhoon.”

The installation of a Doppler radar in a highly strategic location like Bato, Catanduanes, is “vital to the government’s disaster preparedness and mitigation program,” Montejo said.

Ninety percent of typhoons that hit the Philippines every year enter the country through the Bicol region, the DOST said. The Doppler radar is installed facing the Pacific Ocean, where typhoons originate.

Inaugurated on Thursday, the Doppler radar in Bato costs P580 million. It was acquired through a grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

The DOST said the new radar will enable Pagasa “to detect and track rain clouds and potential thunderstorms more accurately.”

With the radar, Pagasa will be able to monitor typhoons headed for provinces in Bicol, the Visayas and the western side of the country.

Replacing a 48-year-old radar, the new Doppler can transmit more comprehensive data for weather monitoring, rainfall measurement and wind tracking in real time, the DOST said.