It was a sea of colors in Ovalau as school students turned up in numbers to celebrate World Metrological Day which was officially opened by the Minister for Infrastructure, Disaster Management, and Fiji Meteriological Services Hon. Jone Usamate today.
The students braved the hot sun as they marched from the main road to Nasau Park where tents were provided to protect them from the hot sun by the staff of the Fiji Meteorological Services.
Minister Usamate and the students of Levuka toured various tents where Met officers displayed their services.
16 year old, Jale Koyanasau of Levuka Public School said that having the celebration in Levuka for the first time was a great idea.
“This is the first time for us to witness this celebration in Levuka and I found it to be very educational, I was especially interested in learning about climate change,” Jale said.
For Elina Eta, a form 6 student of LPS the celebration was very educational indeed.
“What interested me the most was learning the causes and effects of climate change,” Elina said.
Minister Usamate while officiating at the event said that in 2014 a fully fledged automated solar power weather station was installed at the Fiji Roads Authority Levuka Depot.
“This station continuously monitors the weather every ten minutes and the information that it gathers is transmitted every hour by satellite communication back to the Met office.”
“This station is structed and designed to withstand extreme weather condition. It monitors the temperature, the rainfall, the wind direction, wind speed and gusts, solar radiation, soil moisture, leaf wetness and earth temperature from 10cm to 1 meter depth.”
“There are also two other stations that can be found in the Lomaiviti group. Your very own Levuka automatic weather station and another one is at Koro island airstrip.”