As a regional partner in the WMO Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) supports national meteorological offices across the Caribbean in their quest to develop and deliver climate information through comprehensive climate services.
CIMH works with these national organizations to produce tailored climate services mechanisms such as information systems, observations and monitoring and capacity development. CIMH efforts to build climate resilience throughout the region, focusing on GFCS priority areas, are also proving to be effective. Programmes, such as Building Regional Climate Capacity in the Caribbean and Implementing the GFCS at Regional and National Scales, facilitate collaborations at the national level that will ultimately result in regional adaptation to climate events.
For example, the National Meteorological Service (NMS) of Belize recently established a project that supports one of its climate-sensitive recently established a project that supports one of its climate-sensitive sectors by providing customized products and services with help from CIMH. The project, developed in partnership with Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), demonstrates how national energy sectors in Caribbean Small Island Developing States can adapt to increased climate variability and change.
In late 2013, CIMH co-convened a GFCS Stakeholder Consultation in Belize to discuss how to reduce and manage risks related to climate. The Consultation provided a platform for the identification of priority areas and key activities that would assist the NMS to improve its climate services. To help make effective decisions related to climate, the Belize Energy Resilience for Climate Adaptation Project (ERCAP) was to develop an urgently needed hydrologic model to forecast the input flows into reservoirs such as Macal River’s Chalillo Dam.
The Belize ERCAP is a groundbreaking model that partners meteorological operations with the energy sector to develop and distribute key data for building climate resilience and adaptation. As a model for other regions, it demonstrates how the GFCS successfully guides the development of products and services that support decision-making at the national level.
Weather Research and Forecast Model output.
