Helping make the locals weather-wise in Samoa

SAMOA - One-time TVNZ weather presenter Kay Gregory is hoping that better weather reports can save the lives of Pacific Islands fishermen.

Gregory has been in Samoa this week, teaching island officials how to present weather in a way that people understand.

Her work is part of the Pacific Island Training Institute on Climate Change and Extreme Events, a project that aims to train officials how best to respond to extreme changes in climate and how to inform the public.

Gregory, who was a weather presenter for five years, said weather reports should be "user friendly".

"There needs to be more details, so that rather than just giving the forecast, we explain what it means. Instead of saying, 'There's a low coming', we say 'And that means rain'.

"I think it's important that when there's a cyclone that the islands get good warning and they know what's going on," said Gregory, who is now co-host of TVOne's Breakfast programme.

"Part of the purpose is to teach appropriate people how to deal with the media, be confident with cameras and recorders under pressure."

Samoa has had recent practice with its disaster response system - in March the worst of Cyclone Olaf narrowly missed the country, hitting the neighbouring American Samoan Manua islands.

The Meteorology Office issued hourly reports on the cyclone's progress and in a matter of hours police, fire and medical emergency teams were ready.

But despite the warnings and weather reports a boat still went out to sea and one fisherman died.

Samoan fisherman Fiaui Vaifale said more user-friendly weather reports with localised and simplified reporting could prevent accidents.

"I think for some fishermen friends it's misunderstanding the implications of the weather because they don't understand the weather forecast to begin with. I can understand when the weatherman says the wind is coming from the north.

"But it might help if they say the waves will be coming from what direction and how bad the waves would be."