PAGASA to simplify weather updates

The state weather agency has embraced its less “techie" side. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) on Tuesday said it would drop technical terms and use simpler words in its weather updates to ensure that its messages are easily and quickly absorbed by the public. The new updates, which are passed to broadcast journalists in radio and television for fast dissemination in case of a weather disturbance, will also have more emphasis on the impact of the weather, officials said. Robert Sawi, the chief weather forecaster, said PAGASA has “laymanized" the advisories to ensure that news anchors get the message accurately. By simplifying and eliminating complex scientific terms from the updates, Pagasa said it hoped that the plainer message would be more understandable to the public. Filipino-language updates The weather updates for the broadcast media are in Filipino. But certain terms, like those used for directions, would be in English. Sawi said these are more widely used and “easier to understand." Pagasa has also dropped unnecessary technical information like wind speed and wind direction from its updates, noting that feedback from focus group discussions showed that these are not useful to the ordinary listener. Scientific terms like “Intertropical Convergence Zone" were also removed from the public advisory and was replaced by the simpler “wind convergence." (ITCZ refers to the front where winds from the northern and southern hemispheres converge. It helps generate rains, thunderstorms, and tropical cyclones.) Regular daily reports The public advisory for the general weather for the day would be issued once a day, at 5 am. It would be updated in the morning and in the afternoon. In the event of a weather disturbance, it would be updated every six hours, Pagasa said. At the end of each updates are Pagasa hotlines and the website address for the public to check for further inquiries. — TJD, GMA News