The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported that a project aimed at helping meteorological services in developing countries provide forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather is gaining momentum in Africa.
The Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP) has improved lead times and reliable alerts for heavy rain, severe winds and high waves, thus assisting in the protection of people and property, and supporting such sectors as farming, fishing and transportation.
21 November 2014: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported that a project aimed at helping meteorological services in developing countries to provide forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather is gaining momentum in Africa. The Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP) has improved lead times and reliable alerts for heavy rain, severe winds and high waves, thus assisting in the protection of people and property, and supporting such sectors as farming, fishing and transportation.
The project is part of WMO’s efforts to strengthen the capacity of national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs), and to build greater disaster resilience. To this end, the WMO sponsored an East African Regional Training Workshop on Severe Weather Forecasting and Warning Services in Kigali, Rwanda, from 10-21 November 2014. The event brought together around 30 participants, including forecasters and experts from public weather service and agricultural meteorology divisions, representing Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The training workshop is the fifth to take place for Eastern African countries since the inception of the SWFDP in the region in 2010.
A two-week training workshop was also held in Pretoria, South Africa, in October/November for 12 countries in Southern Africa. The workshops trained NMHS staff in the use of the latest Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and Ensemble Prediction System (EPS) products and satellite information, which give guidance to weather forecasters in advance of potential hazardous weather conditions, in order to improve forecasting and provide timely alerts and warnings.
The SWFDP uses a ‘Cascading Forecasting Process’ (global to regional to national), and, since its inception in 2007, has been implemented in various countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, the Southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia. It is now being developed in the Bay of Bengal and Central Asia, and is expected to expand to Western Africa and South America in the next one to two years. The project aims to ultimately empower NMHSs to maintain effective warning programmes for all hazards, with improved accuracy and advanced warning. [WMO Press Release] [SWFDP Website]