Bahrain’s weather forecasts should now be more accurate than ever with the installation of four state-of-the-art monitoring stations yesterday (February 22).

Three solar-powered units were installed at King Fahad Causeway, Durrat Al Bahrain and the Coastguard base in Sitra, while a fourth can be mobilised when necessary, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry Civil Aviation Affairs Acting Under-Secretary Ahmed Al Nemah said the new stations would measure temperature, relative humidity, wind direction, wind speed, wind gust solar radiation, ultraviolet radiation and sea temperature.

"The stations are also equipped with special cameras to monitor clouds and horizontal visibility," he said.

The plan is to increase coverage of the weather forecast network to meet requirements of the World Meteorological Organisation and improve accuracy.

"The next stage of the project will involve linking Bahrain's stations to those of the GCC states as part of the proposed numerical weather prediction project in the near future, which will be one of the main initiatives to be undertaken by the ministry," he said. - TradeArabia News Service