MetMalaysia aims to cut warning time to six minutes and improve weather forecast accuracy as part of disaster preparedness
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) will accelerate the issuance of earthquake information and tsunami warnings this year.
The target is to reduce the dissemination time from eight minutes to six minutes after an event is detected, as part of efforts to strengthen national disaster preparedness.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Datuk Seri Arthur Joseph Kurup said the accuracy of weather forecasts is also targeted to increase from 82% to 85%.
This aligns with efforts to enhance the country’s early warning system (EWS) capabilities.
“To ensure continuous preparedness, MetMalaysia operates the early warning system continuously 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
This covers aspects of early detection, timely warning issuance, and continuous coordination with disaster management agencies at the federal and state levels.
He was responding to a question from Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias (BN-Jelebu) regarding the effectiveness of the EWS in delivering rapid and comprehensive notifications about disaster threats, especially in rural areas.
Arthur said the government has allocated a total cost of RM242 million to upgrade the weather early warning system.
This covers the implementation of several forecast system enhancement projects and the construction of weather radars.
The government has also allocated RM18 million under the 13th Malaysia Plan for the development of the Malaysian National Tsunami Early Warning System.
MetMalaysia continues to strengthen its weather forecasting capability through improvements to the Radar Integrated Nowcasting System (RANS).
This system integrates radar networks and short-term forecast models to generate near real-time projections of rain movement and intensity.
The Numerical Weather Forecast System is also being enhanced through the use of High-Performance Computing technology and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“This strengthening allows the generation of weather forecasts up to 14 days ahead with a higher resolution of 300 metres compared to one kilometre previously,” he said.
All warnings issued by MetMalaysia can be accessed via the Met API (Application Programming Interface) and the public sector open data portal.
These are for use by government agencies, the private sector, and the public.
In line with these efforts, MetMalaysia also implements real-time rainfall forecast data sharing with the Department of Irrigation and Drainage.
This supports the operation of the National Flood Forecasting Centre.
