Newsmen attend workshop on weather, disaster

PILI, Camarines Sur --- The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) conducted a weather and disaster reporting seminar-workshop for Bicol media practitioners on April 30 to May 1 at the Camarines Sur Water Sports Complex (CWC) here.

Venus Valderomo, DOST-PAGASA Public Information Unit Officer, said the seminar-workshop is aimed at expanding the knowledge and understanding of newsmen about the services being offered by their agency.

“We recognize our partnership with media in disseminating information related to weather and disaster. And with this seminar we are expecting that the mediamen could convert the technical terms we are using into the layman’s language,” Valderomo said in a phone interview.

Participating mediamen had the opportunity to be presented with state-of-the-art technology that PAGASA is now using.

“We will factor in the inputs that our media partners would give us during the seminar so that weather reporting, for example, could be simplified and be easily understood by the public,” she added.

Valderomo also said the workshop is timely due to the prevailing dry spell in the country.

Topics discussed during the two-day seminar are Understanding Meteorological Hazards, End-to-end Early Warning System, Typhoon Tracking Exercise, Climate Variability, El Niño Update, Climate of the Philippines and Climate Services, Tropical Warning System, and Astronomical Services and Events, among others. PNA