PAGASA upgrades its forecast visualization tool PANaHON. Screenshot from https://panahon.gov.ph/

MANILA — A year after its launch, weather bureau PAGASA is upgrading features on its interactive monitoring and visualization platform for better accuracy and accessibility.

A gridded forecast of six-hour cumulative rainfall, temperature, wind, and air pressure for any location in the country has been integrated into the interactive map of PAGASA National Hydro-Met Observing Network or PANaHON.

Additional features include clickable grid points, a time-slider, and a location-based search function.

LPA, easterlies to bring cloudy skies, scattered rains

Senior weather specialist Raymond Ordinario said the major feature they added to the PANaHON application is the integration of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) weather model, which can provide up to five days' worth of forecasts.

These are in addition to real-time data accessible from PAGASA's synoptic and automatic weather stations, meteorological satellite, Doppler radars, and lightning detection systems originally available on the platform.

Regional warnings, including thunderstorm and rainfall advisories and heavy rainfall warnings, are also now consolidated into a centralized alert system, which can display color-coded markers on the map along with hazard information.

"One of the problems of our current warning system is kanya-kanyang PRSD (PAGASA Regional Services Divisions), kanya-kanyang issuance. What we do now is try to come up with a single map of those warnings," Ordinario explained.

(The previous system allowed the different regional offices to issue their warnings separately. What we do now is try to come up with a single map of those warnings.)

PANaHON is accessible through panahon.gov.ph on any browser, with preference for desktop use. 

The mobile version has forecasting features but lacks the observation data and the centralized alert system.

"We put this system in a cloud [server] so yung downtime ay mababa yung chance na mangyari. Saka kung marami ang nag-a-access babagal... meron tayong subscription sa cloud infrastructure kaya hindi niya maaapektuhan yung user experience," Ordinario said.

(PANaHON uses cloud infrastructure, which ensures low chances of downtime, especially when multiple users try to access the platform simultaneously.)

PAGASA previously said PANaHON is a "key instrument" for improving weather monitoring, forecasting, and disaster management in the Philippines.

The launch of the upgraded PANaHON coincides with the Typhoon and Flood Awareness Week, observed every third week of June, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 1535 series of 2008.