The Tribune

THE installation of a WeatherSTEM weather station at Blue Lagoon marks the first Caribbean destination with capacity to provide island-specific, real-time weather information to the island’s management and guests.

Keeping close tabs on weather that will impact the private island tourist attraction, situated a few miles northeast of New Providence, is critical for keeping guests, staff and animals safe.

Images and data coming out of the Blue Lagoon Island weather station have since been featured on the US-based The Weather Channel, according to a company statement.

“Weather plays a major role in our day-to-day and even hour-to-hour operations,” said Blue Lagoon Island president Robert Meister.

“Our new WeatherSTEM system means we have access to not only the weather forecasts and alerts issued for Nassau and the northwestern Bahamas, but for our island and the area immediately surrounding it.”

The weather station collects comprehensive data including current temperature, water temperature, wind speed and direction from various sensor points on the island, humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall amounts and rate, and UV Radiation. The system also provides a ten-day forecast with hourly projections for the island.

The data dashboard, which is available in desktop and mobile formats, is updated every 8/10 of a second automatically and reports how close a lightning strike is to the island at any given time.

The system allows Blue Lagoon Island’s operations team to quickly respond and evacuate the water in the event there is approaching lightning or take down umbrellas if the wind at the island reaches a certain speed.

It includes two high resolution cameras – one pointed towards Nassau, and the other towards Rose Island – that provide live stream imaging and also create stunning daily 24-hour time lapse videos using photographs captured every minute.

The island's station is the second international installation for WeatherSTEM, according to CEO and Founder Ed Mansouri.

“We could not have chosen a more idyllic location for our first WeatherSTEM installation in The Bahamas. Our 100 percent solar-powered cellular WeatherSTEM unit at Blue Lagoon Island has two streaming weather cameras and features moment by moment weather updates,” he said.

The weather data is publicly accessible at http://bahamas.weatherstem.com/bli and is a useful tool for Bahamian recreational boaters, eastern New Providence residents and other tour operators.

Interested people can also use the link to access WeatherSTEM Scholar, a weather education platform for all ages.