Radar out of action as storm season peaks
(CNS): The Kearney Gomez Doppler Radar is, once again, out of service due to mechanical issues, just as the Atlantic storm season reaches its peak. The Cayman Islands National Weather Service (CINWS) said it is working with the manufacturer to replace the damaged components but was unable to give a timeline for the repairs. The radar has been offline for more than a week due to a damaged part that has to be manufactured to order.
The radar has a history of mechanical failures and storm damage and has been out of action quite frequently. The chief officer of the climate resiliency ministry, Jennifer Ahearn, said restoration was a key priority.
“We understand that this latest issue with the weather radar comes during what is typically the busiest period of the Atlantic Hurricane Season — a time when access to radar imagery is of particular importance to the people of the Cayman Islands,” she said.
“I would like to assure the community that the Weather Service has access to other services and tools that enable their dedicated team of forecasters and meteorologists to continue to produce accurate forecasts, advisories and warnings. Nevertheless, restoring the radar to full working order is a key priority and we will do our utmost to expedite timelines wherever possible to secure and install the replacement part,” she added.
Recognising the significant public interest in the status of the weather radar service, Ahearn said the ministry would provide updates on the status of the repairs.
CINWS Director General John Tibbetts said the weather service would still provide accurate, timely forecasts, advisories and warnings. It issues three weather forecasts daily, in addition to severe weather notifications and warnings for marine and wind conditions on an as-needed basis
“The Weather Service will continue to work with all available operational tools to provide updates on weather conditions across the Cayman Islands,” he said. “We understand the importance of the radar to our community and we apologise for any inconvenience this service interruption may cause. The Weather Service will work assiduously to have the radar operational in as short a time as possible.”
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Category: Science & Nature, Weather
If I was Gearney Gomez, I’d ask for my name to be removed from this piece of garbage. Utter nonsense to have a Ministry offer drivel as an excuse (again) for the system not being operational. But wait, we now get wo watch a contractor with no experience building anything more than a 3 br.3bt house, have a crack at building out the $6m new state of the art doppler station. Reckon those part will be sourced from North Korea, eh?
Can we get the Ombudsman’s Office looking into some ‘fair practice’ dealings here?
Come on PACT… where is your dignity? (OK, silly question)
maybe it’s the nane ?
The radar operates 24/7
This means 24/7 maintenance
No off days-24/7
CIG needs to have a cash account to move funds to suppliers who are on call to send parts as forward looking maintenance schedule
The radar is integral to the aviation system that needs to include an ILS for both east and west operations with robust radar for ATC
With traffic increasing it is a matter of time before someone gets clipped.
Stop building pickle ball courts in North Side that will never get used
Sort your priorities out for once CIG
If you want something to work well on this island, I suggest not naming it after a civil servant.
It was a free radar if it makes you feel better. Very useful to see where it’s raining, when it works.
It’s not been free to maintain though, and because it’s never been maintained properly it’s rarely been fit for purpose.
Put your head out of the window, if it gets wet, it is raining.
Its never been reliable. Breaks down more than my 1976 mazda
Mi bote has Radar, I float out East End – Gone Clear..
We don’t really need it, with satellite imagery widely available, windy.com also gives you all kind of wind, cloud and sea conditions too, myradar.com also gives good info. It should be re-purposed to track marine traffic bringing the drugs and guns to Cayman.
lol repurposed to become what? A sea surface radar? Okay. Dashing away the lack of feasibility with that option, why wouldn’t the traffickers simply… use the other side of the island that wouldn’t be able to be accurately tracked by surface radar? The tilt angle alone needed to pull that off would put thousands at risk of exposure, not only that, surface radar uses very specific equipment to filter ground clutter, and sea-surface radar even more specific equipment to reduce reflectivity. Y’all really don’t think that often huh? Mind you, I’m in full agreement that as it stands, the radar is very impractical as the thing is down longer than it’s up year over year, but that boils down to the lacking upkeep standards CINWS employs.
Kearney my boy seems like your Doppler requires some viagra, cant predict our cold fronts no more. On a serious note, a total waste of money and the whole plan needs to be scrapped and the land return to the people. We are throwing good money at a piece of junk!
‘The Cayman Islands National Weather Service (CINWS) said it is working with the manufacturer to replace the damaged components but was unable to give a timeline for the repairs. The radar has been offline for more than a week due to a damaged part that has to be manufactured to order.’
sounds a lot like Spendy with wanting the most expensive private airport, except in this case we got ourselves a ‘custom radar’
🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
Ironically, I wonder if we would benefit by inviting the wx radar specialist from Cuba, who seem to always be able to *cough* keep their radar up.
right whrn there is something headed our way.
World Class my Ass!
They’ve got a 🍋
If the manufacturer fails to conform the product, equipment, vehicle to the warranty after a “reasonable number of attempts” to repair these defects, the law requires the manufacturer to buy back the defective product and give the consumer a purchase price refund or a replacement.
but the owner is obligated to service it regually.
somehow i doubt this has been happening
Assuming there’s still a warranty. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the warranty has already expired along with the equipment. Most likely they opted out of the extended warranty plan.
The law requires…? Which law exactly? Why would consumer print rights extend to a governmental cross border purchase. We don’t even have consumer protection here.
If that was true Boeing would have gone bankrupt with the 737 Max grounded for a year.
except that Boeing is almost a US Cayman Aiirways.
You can actually tell when the radar is working as the forecasts are a little more accurate. We do need it.
Has it ever really worked? Year on year it seems to be broke.
And year on year they spend so much money supposedly fixing it.
Yep – great deal for the manufacturer since all the parts that seem to break can only be supplied by them, tailor made at enormous cost.
Perhaps if they were maintained properly in the first place there’d be less repairs?
Its only broken during hurricane season. The rest of the year its fine.
Just get rid of it and donate it to Honduras along with the fire trucks.
The cost benefit analysis proves there is no justification for this since there are ZERO benefits and a boatload of costs.
It was a gift from the EU.
Yeah well the Trojans received a gift horse too…
What a good deal Julianna and Kearney got us. And very fitting that it is of little to no use most of the year, just like the two
The radar is a good brand.German I think.
Even the best car will fail if it aint maintained.
Exactly, 💯%
Imagine them trying to keep all the equipment in the new $6 million dollar facility maintained. Plenty employees with great benefits…unfortunately they didn’t get those jobs because they were highly competent. That said, they are all good at preparing RFPs to see which consultant they are going to hire to do the actual work.
laughable stuff…but its the taxpayers who paying for this incompetence….
another glorious day for the civil service….zzzzzzz
cig decoded:
its broke and we don’t know when it will be fixed.
welcome to wonderland