Scottish government and Met Office both reluctant to fund new stations
By Rob Edwards Environment Editor

People living in half of Scotland could miss out on vital flood warnings because of huge gaps in the country's network of weather radars.

Some of the areas most vulnerable to flooding, around the Moray Firth and in Dumfries and Galloway, are not covered, putting their populations in danger from flash floods and sudden storms.

But now MSPs are calling for urgent action to plug the gaps. They point out that radar coverage in Scotland is much poorer than in England and Wales.

The Met Office in Exeter uses high-resolution radars to track and predict thunderstorms and heavy showers across the UK. In Scotland this information is used by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) to help predict floods and, if necessary, warn communities.

But according to the Met Office, only about 50% of Scotland is covered by high-resolution radars, compared with 90% of England and Wales. Large parts of southwest Scotland, Moray, the Highlands and the northern isles are missed out.

Inverness is the biggest city not covered. The others, and most of the rest of Scotland, are covered by a network of five radars across central Scotland, Fife, Aberdeenshire and the Western Isles.

In evidence to the Scottish parliament's rural affairs and environment committee, the director of operations at the Met Office, Stephen Noyes, has suggested that Scotland needs at least three more radars, each costing between £1.5 million and £5m.

"Improving radar coverage would particularly benefit flood forecasting, especially in relation to the potential increase in summer events of high-intensity rainfall," he said. It could help prevent Scotland from suffering the kind of rapid flooding that devastated the Cornish village of Boscastle in August 2004.

Noyes added: "Additional investment in Scotland to provide flood forecasting advice around which Sepa and the Met Office can deliver services is something for the Scottish government to think about."

According to David Stewart, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, the flood-prone areas of Scotland should now benefit from the same coverage as in England. "Our rural areas appear to be technological no-go zones," he said.

He urged Scottish ministers to instruct Sepa to commission the Met Office to review the existing weather radar. The review should assess the cost of building new radars to boost Scotland's high-resolution coverage, he said.

Stewart added: "The bigger question is, how we can afford not to provide the best and most comprehensive radar coverage to predict flooding and avoid the worst human and financial misery that can result?"

The case for enhanced radar coverage was backed by Sepa, which acts as the flood warning authority in Scotland. "The weather radar network gives us the ability to make predictions on likely flooding threats as it provides real-time information on weather systems and the intensity of rainfall," said senior hydrologist Michael Cranston.

"The accurate detection of rainfall events is limited, given the highland nature of Scotland and the large distances between radar installations. We would welcome any move to review the radar network in Scotland that may improve our ability to predict flooding."

The Scottish government, however, argued that it was up to the Met Office, an agency of the Ministry of Defence, to fund extra radar in Scotland as part of its responsibility to provide a public weather service for the whole of the UK.

"We do not have a direct funding role," said a government spokeswoman.

"We will be very happy to discuss constructively with the Met Office and the UK government how we take forward any additional radar coverage for Scotland."