The Bahamas Department of Meteorology is speaking about its readiness in the face of budget cuts by the Trump Administration to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States.
Senior Meteorological Officer in Grand Bahama, Trinard Tynes told ZNS News that the Met Office office can stand alone. He said, “we are scientist, we’re meteorologists. We have other tools, we have other mechanisms to use. Yes, their help was great but if we lose that arm, I don’t think it’s gonna be long, but because we lose that ability so far that does not mean we’re gonna die.”
Acting Director of Meteorology, Jeffrey Simmons recently shared that some of the service provided by NOAA had already been reduced.
Tynes spoke to the relationship between NOAA and The Bahamas during hurricane season. “Any storm that comes through in the Atlantic during hurricane season, it comes through The Bahamas before it gets to them. So they have to check our stuff first before they come up with their stuff as well. Yeah they have the fancy technology but The Bahamas has the experience. So they use our experience to know how to do what they have to do when any storms coming this way. So it’s not just we lose, they lose as well cause they lose a good collaboration because every hurricane season our people is at those meetings. Little does everyone know, we’re at those meetings. We sit down, we put in names for the storms and everything like that, they vote on,” he said.
The Senior Met Officer is of the view that The Bahamas will adapt to the circumstances. He said, “we only lose a few things but they’re still writing forecasts that we can see but we won’t be getting the other heavier stuff like the hurricane hunting and all that other stuff. But we have the European model, we have Japan, we have German models, we’re worldwide. One person decides that they want to leave and play by themselves, that’s fine.”
