KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Mar: The government will build another 40 automatic weather stations (AWS) in districts throughout the country by year end to ensure better facilities for weather forecast.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department director-general Datuk Che Gayah Ismail said the additional AWS was important to ensure more accurate weather forecast reports.
“Currently we have 108 automatic weather stations throughout the country. The budget allocation for the additional ones have been received and the project is being carried out.
The AWS plays an important role in development, especially the agriculture sector.
When farming is done on a large scale, weather reports are vital because information and data is needed for feasibility studies.
“Weather reports are also important to determine if a certain area was suitable for farming,” she told Bernama after a briefing on “Climate Change in Malaysia” at Wisma Bernama, here Thursday.
Che Gayah said the government had carried out cloud seeding operations in Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Johor although the situation has not reached the critical level.
“We must understand that whenever there is a drought we must be alert because it is a warning sign that water might dry up. The current dry spell is placed under the alert category by the Meteorology Department but the condition is not expected to reach the serious level.
“The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for cloud seeding to commence is to reach the crisis level but right now we have not reached the level.
However, since there was a water crisis, cloud seeding was carried out on March 3 and 4 successfully, resulting in heavy rain in a number of areas,” she said.
She said the cloud seeding operation was carried out with the assistance of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) and involved 8,000 litres of water and 1,200kg salt. (Bernama)
