Rock island weather conditions are now available LIVE ONLINE through the live weather portal https://weather.coralreefpalau.org on the Coral Reef Research Foundation (CRRF) website. This was made possible through a grant from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives entitled “Understanding the Local Impacts of Climate Change in Palau”. The public can access near real-time weather information (updated hourly) from CRRF’s Tower Weather Station (TWS) located on the northern end of Ngeanges Island.
The website provides hourly updates on wind speed/direction, rainfall, air temperature and humidity, barometric pressure and solar radiation. Boat operators, tour guides, fishermen and women, and picnic goers can access this information to check conditions before heading out.
In addition, there is open access to historical weather data collected starting in March, 2007 when the station was installed. This allows users to see weather patterns over days, months or years. The site also links to weather forecasts, helping users plan their fishing, farming and recreational trips.
The TWS was originally funded by a David and Lucile Packard Foundation grant to CRRF, part of the efforts to monitor conditions in Jellyfish Lake to determine environmental parameters affecting the lake and its Golden jellyfish population. In 2008 an equivalent floating weather station (FWS) was moored in the center of the Jellyfish Lake to look at the lake’s microclimate. After running the two stations simultaneously for 12 years to determine the relationship between them, the FWS was removed in 2020. The TWS is planned to be a permanent station, providing a long-term reference point for weather impacting the rock islands and Jellyfish Lake.
The recent Canada Fund Project not only funded the live weather portal, but also provided replacement weather sensors for the TWS, supported an informative “Palau centric” climate change video (https://youtu.be/TlME46RSFy4), as well as new website information on climate change (https://coralreefpalau.org/projects/climate-change-in-palau/) and new temperature and sea level (depth) logging instruments in Jellyfish Lake.
The permanent Ngeanges weather station provides the only weather data specific to the Rock Islands and Jellyfish Lake, sites known to have major impacts from strong El Niño and La Niña events. The hourly live weather data will provide people from multiple sectors with knowledge important in livelihoods, including tourism, fisheries and agriculture. The project goal is the acquisition of scientific knowledge used to understand how climate change is impacting lives and livelihoods in Palau, and thus assist with people’s future planning.
CRRF thanks the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) for their generous support and funding for the live weather portal. Coral Reef Research Foundation studies all aspects of the marine environment in Palau and conducts outreach activities to raise awareness and instill pride in students for their natural resources and environment. For more information please contact CRRF at 488-5255, https://coralreefpalau.org, @CoralReefResearchFoundation or visit the lab on Malakal, site of the jellyfish wall.
Rock Island Weather Live Online
