The Meteorological Service of Jamaica, yesterday, (July 19) launched Jamaica’s first official Weather Application, Jamaica Weather.

The Weather App will improve the Meteorological Service’s capacity to effectively communicate short and medium-range forecasts in a more easily understood format to its various stakeholders enabling them to take necessary action.

Speaking at the launch event, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda, stated that the App is critical to Jamaica and the country’s ability to plan.

“It will allow us to plan. It will allow us to make decisions that will guide our daily lives and that is incredibly important. It is one of the investments that have been made into building this predictability, into building this stability that will help us in making decisions…Climate Change is real and the basis of how we are going to plan for and adapt to the changing climate is indeed going to be based on the scientific assessment of what is likely to happen and the constant monitoring of changes in our weather patterns.”

Minister Samuda added that the government will be undertaking similar projects to develop the country’s capacity for analysis.

“The Met Service has other items that need to be digitized that need to flow into the appropriate sources that give us up-to-the-minute, up-to-the-second, information that will allow us to make decisions that will sometimes save lives. But it’s not the only element of government that we will be upgrading significantly. I want to put the country on notice that we will also be investing significantly and engaging partners to develop innovations like the one that is here”.

The Application, a deliverable under the Building Resilience Through Climate Adaptation Technologies, BReTCAT, seeks to adapt the latest weather service technology currently being used in developed meteorological organizations to the Jamaican environment with the inputs of the user communities.

BReTCAT was initiated through the partnership of Resurgence, a social enterprise based in the United Kingdom, and the Jamaica-based Caribbean Climate Innovation Centre (CCIC).

The Application is available on both the Apple and the Google Play Stores. Key features of Jamaica Weather include local weather forecasts, Hour-by-hour forecasts, forecast views, severe weather warnings, customizable forecasts, and sunset and sunset times.

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