UNMA installs state of the art weather radar

By NECJOGHA TEAM

KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA) has started installing a state of the art weather radar at Entebbe to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting.

Early this week a delegation led by the State Minister for the Environment, Dr Mary Goreti Kitutu and UNMA officials led by their Executive Director Dr. Festus Luboyera inspected the ongoing installation at Entebbe which is expected to be commissioned in July.

Dr. Kitutu promised Ugandans that the new radar will give the country more in-depth forecasts at the sub-county up to village level.

“The weather radar will help us to enhance weather forecasting, targeting to know where exactly it will rain or shine at micro -climate level,” Kitutu said.

Kitutu said that the installation of the radar is a big achievement for government because UNMA has been sending its scientists to the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) in Nairobi, Kenya for two weeks to work on the seasonal forecasts and updates but when this radar is commissioned in July by government, all the work will now be done from Uganda.

Last year, UNMA advertised in the newspapers a bid for the supply, installation and commissioning of what they referred to as a ‘One Dual Polarization C- band Weather Radar.  PEJA East Africa is the company which won the bid to install the radar.

On its website PEJA which says is a Dutch company and PEJA East Africa is one of its subsidies says about its profile: PEJA is an international sales organisation with roots dating back more than 80 years specialising in the supply of equipment and related services to the aviation, environmental, maritime and medical sector.  It’s says it supplies;  weather radars, automatic weather stations, upper air stations, lightning detection, weather forecasting systems and automatic message switching systems.