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Remember the doppler radar? The massive two ton weather forecasting marvel was installed in September of last year and should have been operational by October. But five months later it hasn’t. It’s been sitting on the weather bureau’s tower in Ladyville idly because of a mechanical problem. Acting Chief Meteorologist Dennis Gonguez explained.

Dennis Gonguez, Acting Chief Meteorologist
“Last October the radar encountered some problems with a part, a major part, and that was replaced and after sitting there for a while, when the engineer came last week he found that another problem existed with another part of the radar. That part was ordered and now recently, I just checked today and that part is still sitting in Miami, our courier hasn’t picked it up as yet.

It has been sitting there and that is why it developed the secondary problem that I explained because it was locked up and we had some moisture accumulating on some parts and then that led to the failure of that part and that needs to be replaced now. In the meantime the engineer has a commitment in Barbados to work on Barbados’ radar. So while he is out there, we are sitting here waiting for our part, our part to return. He will be back over this weekend and if our part is here by Monday, he will start working on our radar on Monday.”

Keith Swift,
So when will the radar be running?

Dennis Gonguez,
“Well I don’t really want to set any timelines but more like a target, we are thinking about the end of this month to the first week in March because we might get that new part and install that and find that an additional problem develops along the way. So I don’t really want to set a date as such but more like a target, the end of this month – the first week in March.”

Keith Swift,
Have the last few months with it not working been a disappointment?

Dennis Gonguez,
“It is a disappointment but we are still looking forward to it because we know the value of the products that we can get out of the radar. So we are still looking forward to the radar being up and operational as soon as possible.”

The radar in Belize is one a set of three installed in the Caribbean. The total cost of the three is 3.2 million Euros - about $10 million. The European Union is paying for the repairs. Belize has been without a working radar for 15 years.