Climate change has altered weather patterns, making traditional knowledge unreliable.
This is preventing farmers, fishermen, health workers, government agencies and other stakeholders to make informed decisions. Aggravating the problem, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) estimates that Africa’s weather observation network is eight times below the minimum recommended level.
Acknowledging this situation, the Global Humanitarian Forum initiated the Weather Info for All project together with partners, to provide a pan-African solution for climate change adaptation. Harnessing the opportunities brought by the development of mobile communication in Africa, partners to the Initiative will install up to 5,000 automatic weather stations at new and existing mobile network sites throughout Africa. The initiative will reinforce the capacity of the national meteorological services to generate accurate weather forecasts and early warnings.
The data collected by these stations will be analyzed by national meteorological services and transformed into weather forecasts and early warnings distributed to end-users who need it most – farmers, fishermen, rural, and urban communities via a suitable telecoms bearer, for example, SMS. For further information read the Executive Summary of the Project Outline (pdf, 2.15 MB)