Weather data transmission interrupted

Yomiuri Shimbun

SENDAI -- Data transmissions through the Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS) temporarily broke down in the Tohoku region Friday, interrupting communications between four meteorological stations and the Sendai District Meteorological Observatory, meteorological officials said.

At about 2 a.m., an emergency light at the Sendai observatory indicated a problem in data communications within the AMeDAS network system, according to the Meteorological Agency.

Officials discovered that meteorological information from the Yamagata Local Meteorological Observatory, Yamagata Airport Branch Observatory, Shinjo Unmanned Observatory and Sendai Aero Meteorological Station could not be transmitted.

Although weather data, including precipitation levels, wind speed and temperature, were not transmissible, the agency managed to continue its weather forecast services by telephone and fax.

The network resumed normal service at 11 a.m. by replacing switches connecting the stations.

Since early this year, the agency has experienced a series of problems with its meteorological information network system.

On Feb. 29, abnormal data was transmitted from 43 stations in western Japan. On March 1, two meteorological stations in the Kyushu region recorded rain despite the prevailing fine weather.

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