The Meteorological Department was established in 2021 under the Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA), with the responsibility for the monitoring of meteorological events and provision of meteorological information.
The Meteorological Department, with the assistance of the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), recently developed a Strategic Plan for National Meteorological Services for Turks and Caicos Islands (2023-2027). The Strategic Plan outlines the strategic goals and objectives for the Turks and Caicos Islands National Weather Services (TCINWS) to strengthen and streamline their capacity and systems for weather, water, climate, and ocean services for enhanced decision making.
Organisation History
From August 1999, the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Bahamas Department of Meteorology (BDM) and, by extension, the Government of the Bahamas agreed that the BDM should provide aerodrome forecast for the airports in the TCI (i.e., Providenciales and Grand Turk). The agreement was revisited and revised in 2008 and 2014 (refer to Table 1 for more details) to improve the forecast and warning services in TCI.
Currently, TCIAA provides meteorological services for civil aviation through the Meteorological Department at Providenciales International Airport during airport operation hours. The Providenciales International Airport, JAGS McCartney International Airport (Grand Turk), and South Caicos Airport are manned during hours of operations; therefore, only these airports collect and store the meteorological observations. The Department also produces a 3-day public forecast and local severe weather advisories to the general public.
The BDM provides Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF)s to TCIAA and tropical cyclone warning services to the DDME in Turks and Caicos Islands through the CMO’s agreement and the agreement of CMO and WMO Regional Association IV (RA IV) (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean) Hurricane
Committee. At present, ocean and marine meteorological services are not available in the country, but BDM provides public marine information.
Organisation Structure
Currently, the TCINWS has a Director of Meteorology as the head of the organisation, one meteorological officer, and one meteorological assistant. Apart from that, TCIAA has 14 Air Traffic Controllers with meteorological observation training who carry out hourly observations at the various airports.
Vision
The TCINWS will deliver actionable, user-focused, and high-quality weather, climate and ocean services through the application of world-class technology by highly skilled and well-trained professionals to build national resilience and promote the sustainable development of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to make reliable and actionable weather, climate, and ocean information and impact-based early warning services accessible to all residents, visitors, and economic sectors in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Core Values
- National leadership. We will be national leaders in providing weather, climate, and ocean services and perform our duties with great pride and professionalism.
- Integrity. Integrity creates trust. Collectively as an organization, it is our most valuable asset. Individually, it is the constant choice to infuse every action with honesty, fairness, and respect for clients and colleagues alike.
- Learning. A culture of humility and continuous learning will be a bedrock principle of our organization.
- Teamwork. When people work together, they can create something greater than themselves as individuals.
- Passion. We will have joy not just for the work itself but also the people around us, so that we can be bold, innovative, and creative.
- User focused. Companies are judged by the craftsmanship of their products and services, so we will always strive to keep the needs of our users as our starting point.
- Equality of access. We will make information available in an equitable manner.
- Reliable and last-mile-oriented. We will increase our dependability and ensure that nationals and residents benefit from our services.
- Collaborative and Partnership-seeking. We will engage our partners to achieve national goals.
- Diversity and Inclusion. As an organization we will respect and appreciate differences in age, gender, ethnicity, education, physical abilities, race, and religion among individuals and focus on fostering a welcoming environment where everyone has equal opportunity to achieve their full potential.