Today the National Met Service of Belize joined in with the rest of the world in celebrating World Metrological Day. World Metrological Day is celebrated annually on the 23 of March, and today students were invited to the Met Center for an open day to tour their facilities. The chief Met Officer told us more:

Dennis Gonguez, Chief Met Officer
"We had planned an open day fair at the National Metrological Service that schools can come in anytime during the course of today to tour our facilities."

"I'd like to talk a little bit more on the theme. The weather affects everything in our daily lives as you know. We all depend on weather forecasts to plan our daily activities from the way we dress to outdoor activities to even multi-million dollar investments depend of the weather."

"Through the years National Metrological Services forecast has improved to the extent that we are now putting out seasonal predictions. We can now predict what will happen in the next 3-4 months. Our local weather service has that capability at this time."

"In terms of other value added products we produce. We deal with water resources also and we had World Water Day yesterday with the fair and forum. National Metrological Service was an integral partner in that venture."

"In terms of climate and climate change we have evolved in climate services in that we collect weather data, store and analyze weather data. With that data we can have a good projections of future scenarios that governments can develop policies using these impact scenarios for future conditions expected in our climate."

"Then we are also involved in disaster reduction with floods and tropical cyclones as most people know us for. Our products also impact the transportation industry in terms of aviation. The National Metrological Service is located International Airport simply because of our services to the aviation community."

"Then we also deal with trade and tourism. In terms of trade and tourism we issue marine forecast, marine products that can warn of impending danger out at sea."

"The National Metrological Service also involves with energy. If government considers renewable energy sources we collect data on wind and solar information."

"We are involved in a broad spectrum of activities that impact our lives daily and will impact our lives in the future."

World Metrological Day is celebrated under the theme, "Powering Our Future with Weather, Water and Climate".

Channel 7