Artemisa, September 13 (RHC)-- A modern Weather Station was recently inaugurated at the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM)in Cuba’s Artemisa province.

Cuban vice president Roberto Morales Ojeda attended the opening, calling the start-up of the plant ‘a scientific strength for Artemisa province and the country.’

He said it is also a stronghold for the institutions located in the ZEDM, given the new surveillance and early warning systems that will be instrumental in decision making regarding peoples’ health and economic activities.

Morales Ojeda confirmed the determination to continue expanding the weather station network, starting with the provincial centers.

PhD. Celso Pazos Alberdi, Director General of the Meteorology Institute, said that, besides the meteorological studies, the station is equipped to conduct seismological and radiological assessment and will operate in coordination with entities of the Environment Agency, so as to improve environmental monitoring.

Fully automated, the plant has calibrated sensors and high technology to measure the atmospheric pressure variables, air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, wind direction and speed, and solar radiation.

Cuba has a total of 68 meteorological stations, three of them in Artemisa province, in the municipalities of Bauta, Bahia Honda and Guira de Melena.