15 - 21March 2001

Met Office upgrades its service

The Meteorological Office at Malta International Airport has initiated a major modernisation programme and investment aimed at upgrading its services to the public and the entities that seek weather information.
As of this week, the Met Office is providing an upgraded telephone weather information service using specific numbers to obtain the type of information required. The public may now phone on 543848 in order to obtain a 24-hour or 3-day weather forecast over the Maltese Islands, as well as information on the prevailing sea conditions over a 50 nautical mile radius.
For the professional user who requires weather information for commercial use, the Met Office is now offering more personalised weather forecasts by phoning on 543858 whereby the forecaster in person will answer to specific requirements.
The new telephone service concludes the first phase of the upgrade programme that MIA plc has laid out for the Met Office. This also includes the installation of the Doppler Weather Radar, a Lm750,000 project which has drastically improved weather observation and data collection, of weather conditions prevailing over a radius span of 300 kilometres.
Weather information is also available on MIA’s website (www.maltairport.com). The information is updated every six hours and includes land and sea weather observations and forecasts, overnight shipping forecasts and temperatures in main cities. In a more summarised and easily accessible version, weather information may be obtained through Vodafone’s SMS Flash service.
The second phase of the project will see a complete overhaul of the Met Office, effectively replacing the present facilities and equipment.