Koror, Palau – The third Automatic Weather Station (AWS) has been installed at Kayangel State, the first of its kind to be installed outside of the main island in Palau. The first two AWSs have been installed on the main island and are now both operational.

This practically means improved certainty on weather forecasting and allowing the population at large to be more alert and responsive to the routine weather forecasts for informed preparedness purposes. As part of the UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s assistance to the Palau National Weather Service Office (NWSO), the AWS will support NWSO’s capacity in enhancing Palau’s climate monitoring system and improving its resilience to climate-related hazards.

With the technical support from the New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited (NIWA), UNDP procured four AWS, which will complement the capacities to monitor weather conditions and provide real-time data, including wind speed and direction measurements, air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, rainfall intensity, and more. The data will support local weather forecasting services, which is a key element of Palau’s resilience to natural disasters. 

His Excellency Mr. ORIKASA Hiroyuki, Ambassador of Japan to Palau in acknowledging the partnership with UNDP and the Government of Palau and stated, “the installation of the Kayangel AWS system will enhance systematic improvement and complement existing capabilities within NWSO to better extract climate data to inform early warning system for enhanced disaster and climate resilience in Palau.”

Mr. Kevin Petrini, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative and Country Programme Manager, expressed his appreciation to the Government of Japan for their generous support, and acknowledged the contribution of the Government in installing the first of the four AWSs off-island in Kayangel. He added that “this partnership on climate early warning system is a strategic building block to cope with and adapt to climate change in the Pacific.”

Ms. Maria Ngemaes, Meteorologist-in-Charge, NWSO said, “Given the logistic challenges of clearing the land site, the installation of the Kayangel AWS site went ahead as planned. This installation process was carried out according to WMO guidelines.” 

This support has been made possible by UNDP through “Enhancing Disaster and Climate Resilience in the Republic of Palau through the Improved Disaster Preparedness and Infrastructure (EDCR) project,” funded by the Government of Japan. 

The UNDP EDCR project, since its commencement in 2019, has provided equipment strategic to Palau’s disaster risk management. The project aims to strengthen gender sensitive disaster communication and climate monitoring systems; enhance gender sensitive national and state disaster responder’s readiness capacity; and enhance community disaster resilience through improved water resource management and integrated gender and social inclusion awareness.

For more information, please contact: 

Paula Cirikiyasawa, Country Project Coordinator, EDCR Project Office in the Republic of Palau, Tel: +(691) 320 4456, Email: paula.cirikiyasawa@undp.org