LocationsAt the Frontline of Climate Action-SIMS Living the Reality
March 28, 2024
Solomon Islands National Weather Forecasting Office.
The Solomon Islands Meteorology Services (SIMS) under the Ministry of Environment Climate Disaster and Meteorology (MECDM) is a frontliner of Climate Action. Without their people-centred impact based early warning services, many sectors and communities would struggle to cope with the adverse impact of bad weather and climate.
• The SIMS provides essential services namely:
• Daily and extended weather and marine forecast for your safety.
• Tropical cyclone, flood, and tsunami warnings.
• Climate data analysis for socio-economic developments.
• Seasonal (Three Monthly) forecast on rainfall and temperatures.
• Aeronautical forecast and weather information for aviation.
• 24/7 Weather observations across the country.
Over and above the public, and sectors, the main beneficiary of SIMS services includes, the Solomon Islands Maritime Authority (SIMA), the Civil Aviation Authority of Solomon Islands (CAASI), Solomons Islands Airlines, infrastructure, and health sectors.
Solomon Islands has been experiencing frequent tropical cyclones (TC) with damaging wind, incessant rain, and storm surges between the months of October and May annually. The country has experienced numerous disaster events including recurrent small-scale flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain and destructive large- scale events such as Gizo tsunami (2007), Santa Cruz earthquake and tsunami (2013), and Honiara flash floods (2014). All the provinces in Solomon Islands are vulnerable to the impact of TC events. The most affected provinces with strong winds and heavy rainfall in history are Rennell and Bellona, Temotu, and Makira. However, heavy rainfall related to the cyclones have tremendous impact on agriculture and infrastructure over all the Islands.
The recent Cyclone Mal which hit the country in November 2023 triggered landslide events affecting communities especially in South Guadalcanal, Central and Isabel Provinces. This was an unprecedented event that the country has not seen or experienced in recent times but given the climate realities, the country needs to be well prepared for such events. The SIMS through their robust EW services continuously provide weather advisory services and EW warnings which benefit the country.
UNDP Pacific Resident Representative Tuya Altangerel (left), visiting the National Weather Forecasting offices earlier this year.
Over the years the SIMS through the collaboration and support of various partners has made immense investments to strengthen the capacity of the office to provide accurate and timely early warning services to inform early action to protect life, property, and assets.
In November 2023, the Minister for Environment Climate Change Disaster Management and Meteorology, Honourable Stanley Festus Sofu jointly with visiting Australian Governor-General, His Excellency Honourable David Hurley, presided over the official handover of the new SIMS forecasting office.
“This new office is enhancing the SIMS role as a frontliner of climate action as it acts as an Early Warning Centre for 24-hour ocean and weather observation, monitoring and forecasting of early warnings to save lives and improve preparedness”, said Minister Sofu during handover ceremony.
This landmark investment achieved through collaboration with UNDP’s Integrated Disaster Risk Management Project (IDRM) with the financial support of the Australian Government is enhancing the SIMS as a climate action frontliner.
Safety of the Henderson International Airport through robust weather observations systems was boosted through the installation of state of art upgrades of weather observation equipment.
“We utilise all aviation weather services provide by SIMS such as ARFORs, TAFS, METARs, SIGMETs, to ensure all our crew have the most reliable weather information when conducting daily flight operations,” says Eileen Mataki, Operations Control Centre from Solomon Airlines Limited. “We operate our flights with confidence knowing that aviation weather updates provided to our crew are reliable thanks to the SIMS,” she added.
This is a vital support to the SIMS made possible through the IDRM Project which is enhancing its role as a frontliner of climate action as it is providing critical aeronautical forecast and weather information for aviation sector.
The theme for this year World Meteorology Day (WMD), “Frontline of Climate Action” resonate with the SIMS’s mandate as a frontliner of climate action. Looking ahead, the UNDP is committed to forge collaboration and support to the SIMS to further strengthen their role as climate action frontliner. Some of the areas of collaboration and support includes expanding and improving existing weather observation capacity through investing various interventions including installations of automatic weather stations (AWS) and improving the existing observations network.
visiting Australian Governor-General, His Excellency Honourable David Hurley, during the official handover of the new SIMS forecasting office in Honiara, Solomon Islands' capital .
Safety at sea is enhanced through daily and extended weather and marine forecast. The SIMA together with the ocean transport sector can take anticipatory actions through 24hr daily and extended weather and marine forecast provided by the SIMS. Daily forecasts are disseminated at 0600hours and 1600hours throughout the year by the SIMS.
In turn, SIMA broadcast these forecasts every day to all domestic ships in the Solomon Islands at 0900hours and 1500hours via HF radio frequency. According to SIMA, “the marine forecast shared with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) has significant impact to the purpose of SIMA in prioritizing safety of lives at sea for travelling passengers and mariners, through dissemination of accurate and timely marine weather forecasts and warning that help ship operators and Masters to make informed decisions about their voyages in ensuring their safety. SIMA added that, “this cooperation between SIMA and SIMS is vital as it a collaboration under the international convention of Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)”.
The fight against malaria is difficult to win without the support of technical agencies like the SIMS. Through the provision of temperature and rainfall data and other weather and climate information, the health sector can conduct research to inform the design of health interventions including environmental health which contributes to prevent or reduce the spread of malaria parasite vector.
The Solomon Islands is in the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, prone to geological hazards such as earthquake, landslide, tsunami and volcanic eruption, the infrastructure sector depends on essential services from technical agencies such as the Geological Services Division (GSD) under the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification (MMERE) and the SIMS to promote the construction of climate resilient infrastructure. New infrastructures in Honiara such as the recently constructed SIMS office are integrating the principles of climate resilience given the increasing risk of geological hazards.
As the Solomons Islands observe the double celebrations of the World Meteorology Day (WMD) and World Water Day (WWD), this celebration reminds us of the twin relationship between meteorological and hydrological services. Several communities across the country and sectors are perennially affected by flooding events. The Water Resources Management Division (WRMD), under MMERE is responsible for flood monitoring and early warnings.
“For us in the WRMD, this year’s WWD theme, ‘water for peace’ reminds us of the importance of water as a finite resource that if not made accessible to all users alike and not used wisely can spark conflict”, says Richard Molea, Director for WRDM under MMERE.
Extreme weather events such as El Nino - Southern Oscillation phenomenon impacts the climate and occurrence of hazard events across the country. Many parts of the world are already battling the impact of the EL Nino with implications for conflict triggered by water scarcity.
Echoing last year’s WWD, “The Future of Weather, Climate and Water across Generations”, this year’s theme, 'Leveraging Water for Peace’ is most profound given the reality of climate change. Thus, investing in water conservation, and sustainable use of water resources will help to prevent future conflict which may retard the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 14.
The SIMS use various medium to disseminate their early warning messages and products such as Facebook, Radio through the Solomon Islands Broadcast Corporation (SIBC), and Website. They are currently exploring to expand dissemination mediums to ensure that all vulnerable communities are not left behind.
About 10 schools and scores of learners from Honiara are expected to participate in this year double celebrations. The celebrations was graced by the Deputy Secretary Technical for the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Disaster and Meteorology (MECDM), Mr. Iroi Channel, Director for the Solomon Islands Meteorology Services (SIMS) under MECDM, Mr. David Hiba and Director for Water Resources Management Division (WRMD) under the Ministry of Mines Energy and Rural Electrification (MMERE), Mr. Richard Molea. It was spiced by fun-filled knowledge sharing and awareness activities such as display stalls, competition, speeches, entertainment and many more activities.
The Solomon Islands Meteorological Services in collaboration with the Water Resources Division (WRD), UNDP and partners wishes you happy twin celebrations of the WMD and WWD 2024. Take heed, take anticipatory action from SIMS and WRD weather and climate services, warnings, and advisories.
Written by Joseph Mutsigwa, UNDP IDRM Project’s DRM and Climate Resilience Specialist
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