Department of Meteorology officials yesterday suggested that forecasters in the department are unqualified to provide forecasts to the media and said there are numerous examples where those employees incorrectly documented that the radar was not working when their computers "simply needed to be rebooted".
Department of Meteorology Deputy Director Basil Dean said the Doppler radar was operable throughout Hurricane Joaquin, which devastated islands in the southern and central Bahamas on October 1 and 2.
"The work station, which is just a computer monitor and a keyboard that allows forecasters to have a view on the [imagery] that is being generated by the radar, is in a different lookout from the forecast office," he said. "And our technicians would have encountered this on numerous of those submissions you would have seen in the log when they went to respond to those submissions, found that was all that was required in order for them to view the images. So, it begs some other questions. Why did they not reboot?"
The Guardian revealed on Monday that forecasters had expressed outrage that the radar had gone down and that residents were not warned about Hurricane Joaquin as early as they should have been warned.
Department of Meteorology Director Trevor Basden said he, Dean, Deputy Director Jeffrey Simmons, Chief Climatological Officer Michael Stubbs and Chief Meteorological Officer Arnold King comprise the "intellect behind the study and analysis of these systems".
"No one else in the Department of Meteorology is qualified or given the authority to issue an alert, watch or warning independently - the rest of us can - without our intervention, instruction or guidance," Basden said.
"Those people whom you are alluding to are not meteorologists. We will deal with that at a different time. We are the meteorologists. We have our degrees, went to universities and have years and years of practicable application when it comes to tropical cyclones.
"We have always relied - this is my first time in my 39 years going on 40 years - [on a] good relationship with the press, which we thought [considered us] as experts. Now some of the information logged in the logbooks by my so-called professionals I'm really disappointed with, but let me leave that. Again, I have nothing to hide."
During a press conference at the Ministry of Transport, Basden and Minister of State for Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna-Martin insisted the radar was operational throughout the storm, but said it was not critical to producing weather forecast outside the radar 150-mile radius.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
