ILOILO CITY — The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) is now preparing to install its weather monitoring facilities here following its closure a year ago, this time using the modern Doppler Radar Station instead of the original plan of just a synoptic station.

The facility would still be established at the Department of Agriculture-Western Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center (DA-WESVIARC) in Barangay Hamungaya, Jaro following a memorandum of agreement that was entered into by the PAGASA and the Department of Agriculture last year.

Engr. Rowen Gelonga, Science and Technology regional director for Western Visayas, said the Doppler Radar Station has a bigger capacity compared with the ordinary synoptic station. It can help forecast the volume of water being carried by rain clouds thus it could prove useful to those situated in flood prone areas.

The ordinary synoptic station on the other hand is equipped only with an instrument to measure the rainfall, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and sunlight recorder.

Gelonga said that the equipment has already been bid out last year by PAG-ASA while the fund for the construction of the radar tower and station was transferred to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

At the local level, the technical study is also ongoing, he added.

Gelonga, however, said that it would take around one to two years before the Doppler Radar Station would be operational because it has to undergo configuration and other technical adjustments.

Meantime, the synoptic station would probably become operational within the year.

This city is one of the three areas that have been identified for the Doppler Radar Station that could aid PAGASA in the monitoring of weather condition coming from the West Philippine Sea. The two others will be installed in Palawan and Zamboanga.

Currently, the available Doppler Radar Station is situated at the country’s eastern seaboard. (PNA)

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