Weather Center

A national-scale weather service, built from the ground up.

Kalain founded the Trinidad and Tobago Weather Center in 2014 and taught himself to build it: an independent platform that turns raw atmospheric data into clear, public weather guidance for the country, around the clock. What began as a one-person project is now a service he leads with a small team.

Founded2014

ServingTrinidad and Tobago

RunIndependently

There was no team and no budget. In 2014, Kalain set out to do one thing well: take the raw, technical language of atmospheric science and turn it into guidance ordinary people could actually use. When the tools to do that did not exist, he taught himself to build them.

Weather in the Caribbean is rarely abstract. It arrives as the storm that floods a street, the dry season that strains a reservoir, the system that decides whether it is safe to travel. The Weather Center was built to meet people in those moments, explaining not just what is coming, but what it means and what to do about it.

Every part of it, the forecasting, the software behind it, the daily operation, started as self-taught work by one person. It has since grown into a service Kalain leads with a small team. Behind the public site, the data pipelines run automatically, day and night.

A full weather service, in one place.

A full product suite

Hazard outlooks, radar and lightning, marine and coastal forecasts, air quality and Saharan dust, tropical cyclone tracking, tsunami alerts, and flood-risk mapping, all in one place.

Built on real data

It draws on a wide range of observations and forecast models, plus readings from hundreds of weather stations across Trinidad and Tobago.

Plain language first

Every product is written to be understood and acted on by anyone, no meteorology background required.

Tropical cyclone tracker showing Major Hurricane Beryl with forecast track and coastal warnings — Tropical cyclone tracking: live storm position, forecast track, and coastal watches and warnings, drawn over a satellite backdrop.

Three-day weather outlook with a color-coded risk map of Trinidad and Tobago — The 3-day hazard outlook, with risk levels for every community across the country.

Weather radar reflectivity over Trinidad and Tobago and the eastern Caribbean — Radar reflectivity across Trinidad and Tobago and the eastern Caribbean.

Live lightning map with flash counts by zone — Live lightning detection, with flash counts by zone and 24-hour playback.

Five-day Saharan dust and air quality outlook — The 5-day Saharan dust and air-quality outlook.

The forecast became the reporting.

The instinct behind the Weather Center – explain it clearly, make it useful, respect the audience – is the same one that now drives a career of award-winning climate and environment journalism – more than 1,250 nights of primetime forecasts on CNC3, front-page reporting with Guardian Media, and on-the-ground coverage of the UN climate negotiations at COP27 and COP28.