Met Office and Fire Brigade partner to identify fire triggers

The Meteorological Service of Jamaica has partnered with the Jamaica Fire Brigade to identify fire triggers, which will facilitate early warning for bush fires.

As a result it is expected that there will be a drastic decrease in the number of bush fires that usually occur during the dry season.

Several hectares of forest have been damaged as a result of the spate of forest fires primarily in the Mavis Bank community in St Andrew and parts of St Thomas in previous years. 

Meteorological Technician at the Met Service, Glenroy Brown,  says though the prediction is that the drought will subside, there is still need for in-depth work to be done to mitigate against the devastating effects of forest fires.

According to him, they plan to monitor conditions daily, identify the triggers for bush fires and send out early warnings to the fire department in addition to residents who live in these vulnerable communities.

He says coffee farmers in particular, will begin to see changes in the quality of their yields, due to work being done to improve weather forecasting.

Brown says scientists will be able to predict when an outbreak of the coffee leaf rust disease is likely to occur and prevent an actual outbreak through early intervention.

Brown provided the information in an interview with The Gleaner the Climate and Weather Forecasting Training held in Barbados on Wednesday.

The training was hosted by the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology in Barbados.