By William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)
LADYVILLE, Belize District, Mon. Nov. 3, 2025
  The National Meteorological Service has received a welcome upgrade to its computer network to monitor and forecast the weather and to inform Belizeans, through the gift of USD$60,000 worth of information and communications technology equipment from the United Nations’ World Food Program, in partnership with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
  Director Frances Walker of the UN World Food Program’s satellite office in Belize presented the equipment to Chief Meteorologist Ronald Gordon who, along with his entire staff, welcomed the gift at the National Meteorological Service headquarters in Ladyville on Monday morning, November 3. Gordon thanked Walker and project manager Wonjinn Bae from the United Nations Development Program, as he said the equipment would greatly speed up their work of delivering up to date weather forecasts to farmers and mariners, as well as long term climate information to help infrastructure developers and financiers, and climate resilience specialists to plan and design infrastructure that can withstand the forces of nature.
  The equipment is part of a $200,000, two-year project that began in July 2024, to help Belize become more climate resilient with better monitoring of hydrological and meteorological data. The project includes training and capacity building to develop the human resources to use the data to prevent and minimize the impacts from climate disasters. Gordon acknowledged that the Met Service’s information also serves to guide other agencies such as the Forestry Department, the Department of the Environment and the National Environmental Assessment Committee (NEAC), by informing them of the climate risks against which all future developments must be designed to be resilient.
  Minister of the Public Service, Governance and Disaster Risk Management, Hon. Henry Charles Usher also thanked Walker and Bae for the gift, noting the recent climate catastrophe that Hurricane Melissa had visited on our neighbor Jamaica, and the importance of having accurate climate information to better prepare the populace to prevent loss of life and prevent damage to property as much as possible.
  Proper weather data is also key to food production, as changing rainfall patterns have created new challenges for farmers, from torrential rains which can produce dangerous flooding, damaging crops, to droughts which affect planting cycles and diminished yields, as well as wildfires in Belize’s 62 percent of land which is under natural forest cover, Walker noted. Having proper weather information can help farmers ensure food security for women and children, and protect livelihoods.
  Chief climatologist Shanae Young also welcomed the new equipment, as she admitted the service had been making do with older computers, which were slow when running the latest software, and sluggish by comparison with the latest hardware, when it came to analyzing climate data for better and more accurate forecasts.
