The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) has budgeted approximately NT$1.9 billion (US$57 million) for a six-year project to establish a surveillance network to monitor extreme weather.
Cheng Chia-ping (程家平), deputy director of the bureau’s weather information center, said the plan had already been submitted to the Executive Yuan for final approval in March. It was drafted after typhoons Kalmeagi and Sinlaku devastated the nation last year.
“Regardless of whether it’s Kalmeagi, Sinlaku or Morakot, the fundamental issue is the same: the rainfall,” Cheng said.
Cheng said the fund would be spent on establishing observation stations nationwide to collect more detailed weather information, enhancing forecast technology, providing longer-term rain forecasts and offering disaster-prevention information to government agencies.
“Once the budget is approved, the first thing we will work on is ensuring that each town will have a weather observation station,” he said.
Currently, the bureau only has 22 observation stations, monitoring the rainfall in each county or city.
The project will help expand observation stations to more than 300 towns across the nation and renovate some of the old observation stations.
They will be equipped with facilities to monitor rainfall and wind, as well as collect other data, he said.
“This construction effort will take about two years to complete,” Cheng said, adding that it involved factors such as choosing appropriate locations for observation stations.
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