Strengthening cooperation between the Meteorological Services in the Kingdom of the Netherlands

During the past two weeks the National Meteorological Services of North and Central America and the Caribbean met in Curaçao to discuss matters of common interest, including preparation for the upcoming hurricane season.

Since the last restructuring of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, there are now four meteorological organizations responsible for rendering services on weather, climate and seismology in the Dutch Caribbean islands.

These are the Meteorological Department Aruba, the Meteorological Department Curaçao, the Meteorological Department Sint Maarten and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (in relation to the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba).
The four directors of these organizations seized this opportunity to have their first joint meeting since 10-10-10, to explore opportunities for mutual support and capacity building. These include common training of staff, regional modeling for weather forecasting and joint research on climate change.

The meeting was conducted in a cordial atmosphere and all participants were satisfied with the outcome of the meeting. It was decided that the interaction between the four organizations should continue on a regular basis, in order to improve the services to the general public in the Dutch Caribbean islands.

On the picture from left to right, Joseph Isaac (St. Maarten), Frits Brouwer (the Netherlands), Albert Martis (Curaçao) and Marck Oduber (Aruba).