Fiji radar fails

By Martin Tiffany

IMAGINE a light tropical rain turning into a storm followed by gale-force winds and then you are hit by a killer cyclone. And you had no idea it was coming. Fiji and some of its regional neighbours could be faced with such a situation before this cyclone season is over. Basically because its cyclone monitoring equipment is out-dated and has a habit of breaking down.

The seriousness of these problems were rudely shown to Fiji when Cyclone Kina struck in early January. It was obvious to people listening to the weather updates on the radio some thing was amiss at the National Weather Forecasting Centre. When the capital Suva, and near-by towns Na vua and Nausori were being hit by the worst of Kina the radio reported the cyclone was close to the island of Gau 360 kilometres away.

At one point the national weather centre lost track of the cyclone alto gether when its radar broke down and it had to rely on New Zealand to track the cyclone. In fact Cyclone Kina could not be tracked at all using the radar even though the system came within 60 miles of the weather forecasting centre.

Suva and the eastern side of the main island Viti Levu got a nasty shock because of the radar failure when Kina took a southerly turn and hit harder than expected. In fact the people on the eastern coasts of Viti Levu, Vanua Levu (the second main island) and the islands in the Lau and Lomaiviti group got little warning at all.

At 7pm on Saturday January 2 the Nadi weather centre indicated the cyclone may veer their way instead of to the west. The confirmation that it would came at midnight when people could do little more than cower in their homes as the cyclone raged outside.

Three weeks earlier Cyclone Joni hit Fiji with 75 knot winds and gusts of up to 110 knots and the radar broke down.

The radar did not start working until Joni was 100 miles out of Nadi and then it only worked for about seven hours.

National weather centre staff had to rely on satellite images of the cyclone taken by a Japanese satellite 36,000 over Papua New Guinea to fix its location. Fixes done this way can be off the mark by as much as 60 miles. It was only some good guessing and the professionalism of the centre’s staff that

kept the public reasonably well in formed. Acting Director of Meteor ology Rajendra Prasad said he really did not rely on the radar at all, he used the satellite.

In March last year the 35-year-old radar system seized up and was unable to warn of Cyclone Fran. It was fortunate Fran was not strong and did not hit Fiji. But inaccuracies and out-of-date equipment should not come into play when cyclones with killer winds are hitting a country. People’s lives should not be at the mercy of good guess work.

Because of the radar problems the Fiji weather centre had to resort to over warning people.

Twelve countries are directly served by the Fiji weather centre. Given the frequency cyclones and hurricanes hit Fiji and its neighbours who rely on Fiji for information, it is incredible that keeping the cyclone monitoring equip ment in good order and up-to-date is not a priority for the Fiji government or for the other countries which rely on it. Last year 12 cyclones passed this way.

Prasad said the equipment they were using should have been replaced ten years ago adding that the last time the radar operated smoothly was in No vember 1990. The radar equipment is now so old it is impossible to get new parts for it.

New equipment will not be cheap with the cost of replacing the radar running into the SF3 million plus range. The Fiji government said the high cost is the reason they have not been able to replace the radar adding that they could not just install the

equipment overnight.

In September the Fiji government made a request to Australia to assist in providing a weather and wind-finding radar. In response an Australian specialist team from the International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAJB) is expected in Fiji this month to work on developing the best radar.

This is the good news. The bad news is that while the AIDAB team hope to have the system installed before the next cyclone season it will not be in place before the end of this season.

Cyclone season in the Pacific is officially November to April. This means we are stuck with three more months of cyclone season, a 35-year-old radar with a habit of breaking down, some guess work and undoubtedly a lot of prayer.