The Director-General, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Dr Anthony Anuforom, has said the automation of NiMet’s weather forecast system would bring about efficient, accurate and timely weather information.

Anuforom said this in an interview with the newsmen recently in Abuja.

He said the automation would also enable the agency to deliver more benefits of meteorological services to all the sectors of the economy that might need it.

“Because we are automated, we are now in a better position to be more efficient, providing accurate and timely weather information for agriculture and other sectors.

“When you do things manually, it is slow and fraught with human errors and the difference is that there is improved efficiency, timeliness and accuracy that automation guarantees,’’ he said.

Anuforom said the automation was a necessity as it would enable NiMet to be able to handle the large volume of data generated from its numeric weather prediction facility.

He explained that a typical weather observatory measured at least 13 weather variables ranging from wind speed, temperature different depths, wind direction and humidity, amomg others.

According to him, in this day and age, for you to achieve efficiency and durability, among others, you must automate.

“Imagine that a typical weather observatory measures at least 13 weather variables, that is 13 numbers ranging from wind speed, temperature, wind direction, humidity and so on every hour.

“So, you now know how many of such data you will collect within 24 hours and multiply by the number of stations we are operating.

“So you can see that the amount of data that we have to deal with is huge and large.’’

Anuforom added that NiMet would be able to make its weather information flow faster through automation of its observatories across the country.

He said that NiMet had five weather observatories in different locations that were hooked on to its wide aerial network during the inauguration of its Information and Communication Technology Centre in March.

The director-general added that six other locations were expected to be brought on board to make it 11, with plans to have up to 20 automated observatories by the end of 2015.

“So, the work is ongoing and we are hoping that in the next one week or two, six other locations will be brought on board, making it a total of 11.

“What is happening is that the process of collecting data from them has become automated and eventually, we target to have up to 20 hooked on to our wide aerial network before the end of this year,’’ he said.