With effectiveness from January 1, 2013, the Meteorological Department Curaçao (MDC) will not be responsible anymore for the meteorological services or the issuance of weather forecasts for neither the general public nor the aviation sector on Sint Maarten. This job will now be performed by the Meteorological Department Sint Maarten (MDS).
At the time of dismantling the Netherlands Antilles, the MDS was not equipped with a forecaster section and therefore the MDC was requested to be responsible and to provide the services in order to guarantee the continuity of meteorological services for Sint Maarten. A Memorandum of Arrangement regulating the cooperation between the Meteorological Departments was signed by the former Ministers Cooper of Curaçao and Meyers of Sint Maarten.
Recently the MDS hired and trained one forecaster and also contracted two other forecasters (from abroad). These forecasters are trained and certified according to the regulations of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Furthermore, during the past hurricane season these forecasters received an on the job training from forecasters from Curaçao in Sint Maarten about the local conditions and products.
The MDS will be responsible for Sint Maarten to prepare the weather forecasts and warnings for the general public. In addition the MDS will provide services to the Aviation and Marine Sector in Sint Maarten. As the forecaster section of the MDS will not be operational 24/7, the MDC will continue to provide services during the night time on behalf of the MDS until further notice. Additionally during periods in which there are not forecasters on duty in Sint Maarten, due to vacation, sickness or other reasons, the MDC will provide meteorological services to Sint Maarten.
The MDS will continue their work to provide meteorological services in a timely and accurate manner to inform the public about potential natural hazards in cooperation with the MDC All products from MDS will be available on the MDS website www.meteosxm.com.
In this context, the MDC will continue to provide services for Sint Eustatuis and Saba based on the arrangement with the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).
For the Meteorological Department Curaçao, it was a pleasure to be responsible and to monitor, forecast the weather and issue warnings for Sint Maarten during the past years. Now that the MDS is taking over this responsibility, we wish them good luck with this new challenge.