Island’s first Climate Services Summit slated for Tuesday in Carolina

By John McPhaul

jpmcphaul@gmail.com

The Office of Climatology of Puerto Rico (OCPR) at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus (RUM by its Spanish acronym) will host the First Puerto Rico Climate Services Summit on Tuesday.

The educational event, sponsored by the American Association of United States State Climatologists (AASC), in collaboration with the Emergency Managers and Security Professionals Association, will be held in Haydeé Piñero Buck Auditorium on the Carolina campus of Ana G. Méndez University.

The summit will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will gather representatives of related local and international agencies. During the morning, participants will include the National Meteorology Service, United States Geological Survey, Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Puerto Rico Planning Board, which will reflect on the climate issue from their various perspectives.

Other participating entities include the RUM, Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observation System, Sea Grant program and Tsunami Warning Program of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, which is attached to the RUM Geology Department.

“One of the purposes of this summit is to publicize the OCPR, since we reactivated the Office a year ago with the accreditation of the AASC, and we are launching new climatology information-gathering tools that are very pertinent,” said OCPR Director Héctor J. Jiménez González. “Likewise, this event provides the opportunity to bring together a large majority of entities that deal with this issue. This will help us create more interaction and communication for a better flow of resources that is of benefit for the entire island.”

The OCPR’s mission is to compile and have available climatological data on the Puerto Rico region for academics, scientists, industry and the general public.

One of its purposes is to allow analysis of past and future climate conditions in the region of the island and how they are evolving in the face of climate change.