Weather forecasting ability should be upgraded quickly
Can anyone tell me more about the ability of government agencies to forecast rainfall? It would be acceptable if they could forecast, even with very low accuracy, several weeks ahead, with the forecast becoming more and more accurate as the predicting tim
Since we have already spent billions of baht of taxpayers’ money to purchase supercomputers required for simulations, which are necessary for forecasting meteorological information, we would expect their capability has been enhanced.
No one ever talked about releasing water from dams, to make available some retention capacity – monkey cheeks – prior to the heavy rain. On the contrary, the Irrigation Department kept on collecting as much water as it could. As a result, all dams were full just before the heavy rain poured down and devastated two-thirds of the country. Later they began to talk about the dams’ capacity. They began to realise they had to drain the excess water, but by then it worsened problems downstream. What happened shows that we have no forecasting ability at all. It is too easy to forecast what happened after it has occurred.
Among 108 other things, I think we need to overhaul the forecasting capability of government agencies. If it is too difficult for them to work alone, form a consortium. Bring in universities, research organisations or other capable individuals. Last choice, send some 20-30 bright kids to study abroad and tell them to come back before the next flood!
Chatchai Songkhla
Bangkok
