The Board of Audit and Inspection has revealed audit results raising concerns that the reliability of weather forecasts is being undermined due to the Korea Meteorological Administration's inadequate management of weather observation equipment.
Under relevant laws, the KMA is tasked with overseeing and supervising whether observation institutions, including central government ministries and local governments, properly install and operate weather observation equipment, while also ensuring that these institutions register key information in the observation metadata system.
As of October of last year, a total of 21,533 weather observation equipment units were operated by 232 observation institutions, including central government ministries and local governments.
However, an inspection by the Board of Audit and Inspection revealed that key information for 7,402 of these units was missing from the system.
In particular, it was found that 177 units continued to be used without re-verification after failing inspection results, yet the KMA left them neglected.
Additionally, among 8,936 observation equipment units operated by related organizations, 343 were registered as having expired verification validity periods, and even though 325 of them were being used for weather observations without re-verification, the KMA failed to issue separate corrective recommendations.
When the Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an on-site inspection using 75 of these 325 units as a sample, it found that the verification validity periods for 39 units had expired anywhere from a minimum of 4 days to a maximum of 1,599 days.
The Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out, "Due to lax supervision and management of weather observation equipment operated by observation institutions, inaccurate observation data could be utilized in forecasts, raising concerns over the degradation of weather forecast reliability."
Consequently, the board notified the KMA to devise measures to have observation institutions enter missing key information and to require the re-verification of observation equipment whose verification validity periods have expired.
Reported by Park Se-won | Video by Lee Da-in | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
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