After a morning spent in Coruche, the Secretary of State for the Sea, José Maria Costa, was in the municipality of Loulé, in the town of Cavalos, parish of Ameixial, on Wednesday afternoon (January 10), to inaugurate the country's second new meteorological radar.
Housed in an eight-story, several-meter-high tower with a privileged view of the Serra do Caldeirão, the equipment replaces the previous, obsolete one. This commitment to modernizing the infrastructure of the IPMA (Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere) will enable the provision of much more reliable data, with more than twice the quality, resolution, and speed of information than the institute was previously able to provide to the general public.
This is a dual-polarization radar, a new technology that provides a clearer understanding of the type of moisture in the atmosphere and the likelihood of snow, hail, or other extreme events. "We've entered the top league of atmospheric monitoring in Europe. We were on our way, and now we're there!" assured Telmo Carvalho, a representative of this entity and a member of the IPMA board.
With the new equipment, which has a 300-km range, IPMA is now better prepared to provide the information requested daily, without the technological limitations it faced previously. Despite everything, Telmo Carvalho noted that the institute has always released this information "in a timely and expedient manner," recalling the "good collaboration" it has enjoyed in recent years with civil protection regarding weather warnings.
In addition to the general population, the agroforestry sector will also benefit from this equipment and the "supercomputer" installed at IPMA headquarters, which receives data from these radars and weather stations, enabling the processing of information much faster and at a much more specific level. "We were providing information at the district level, and now we can provide information within a 2.5-km radius, which completely changes the importance of this information for agriculture and forest management," explained the institute's director.
The two radars that began operating that day represented an investment of 2.8 million euros. A commitment was also made to new weather stations in the country, totaling "another tens of thousands of euros."
A PRR investment that “denotes the effort and work being made,” as highlighted by the Secretary of State for the Sea.
For José Maria Costa, both the Loulé and Coruche radars are equipment that will allow for “greater capacity, greater resolution, more muscle, and more qualified information.”
"This investment by IPMA is something that can only make us, the people of Loulé, happy," said Vítor Aleixo, the mayor of the first Portuguese municipality to have its Municipal Climate Action Plan approved, a document that also reflects the importance of actions such as investing in this type of equipment.
It should be noted that, in addition to this radar, managed by IPMA, Loulé City Council is responsible for five meteorological stations: Vale Maria Dias, Alte, Loulé (one at the Civil Protection Service and another at the Municipal Fire Department), and Quarteira. This network will be expanded with two additional stations to be installed as part of the inland digitalization program.
"We are here to collaborate with you and also to increasingly understand this reality of collecting data, knowing what is happening, and predicting, because those who predict avoid damage, both human and environmental," concluded the Loulé official.
