Papua New Guinea National Weather Service

The Papua New Guinea National Weather Service, in collaboration with the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority, is embarking on this exercise.

With funding support from UNDP’s Adaption Funds, the National Weather Service has already installed instruments at the Bumbu River in Lae City and upgraded several other weather monitoring gadgets at Nadzab Airport, Morobe Province.

Assistant director for Forecasting and Warning Centre at the National Weather Service, Jimmy Gomoga, says they now want to do away with all the manual instruments.

This is due to plans to scale down operations.

A notice was issued to all aviation and shipping industries, statutory bodies, corporate entities, stakeholders, NGOs, media and the general public on Monday.

It stated that due to internal matters, the PNGNWS will be trimming down its operational hours from a 24 hour operation to eight normal working hours by 4:06pm, Wednesday, May 3, if its grievances are not met.

Hence, this will promptly shutdown the operation on weekends.

The Papua New Guinea National Weather Service (PNGNSW) has issued a renewal strong wind warning today for all coastal waters of Milne Bay, Morobe and West New Britain.

Strong winds will affect coastal waters of Hood Point to Samarai Island including all Milne Bay islands, to Finschaffen and waters of West New Britain.

Strong northwest winds of 25/34 knots are expected to persist for the next six to 12 hours causing rough seas and high wind waves.

All small crafts and boats are advised to take necessary precautions before going out to sea.

PNGNWS reported that PNG is well into the wet season and will experience strong winds throughout January and February.

PNGNWS assistant director Jimmy Gomoga said that for these two months, people should be wary of those warnings issued.

Gomoga said: “People must look out for our warnings every time and adhere to our warnings, and try to avoid being caught up in floods or storms.

“Those on land should not go out to the forest when these warnings are issued in case of trees falling on them or avoid going outdoors to avoid powerlines falling on them.