The Weather and Climate Information Services – Early Warnings for Southern Africa (WISER-EWSA) project has completed a testbed event to improve nowcasting and weather forecasting practices to reduce disaster risk in vulnerable communities.
The event was the first of two testbeds to be established under the project, which is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and led by the University of Leeds. The testbed, said to be the first of its kind in Southern Africa, aimed to bolster the capacity of the region’s National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to provide satellite-based nowcasting.
The WISER-EWSA project team includes the WMO World Weather Research Programme (WWRP), NMHSs, national disaster risk management authorities, non-governmental organizations and private partners. They simulated co-design and co-production in real-time nowcasting and short-range forecasting for the testbed. They sent nowcast and forecast information concerning threatening weather to a sample user group and co-evaluated their effectiveness with communicating and coordinating local communities. The testbed collaborators sought to better understand the needs of the urban populations and to tailor their messages accordingly, while ensuring effective dissemination of warnings through a WhatsApp group.
An engagement day with the NMHSs gathered representatives from 20 media organizations and many users – as well as 50 active online participants. The community-observer approach used for the testbed was intended to ensure user engagement and raise awareness as well as empower the community observers to interpret weather information. The exchange between researchers, the forecasters and users demonstrated the positive returns and benefits of the co-production process. One participant observed, “I have learned how to understand different types of weather forecast, as well as the meaning of different terms used on weather focus.” And another said, “I have learned how I can help to save others from the disasters that we experience during the rainy season.”
Edson Nkonde, director of the Zambian Meteorological Department, added that his office would be looking at ways to maintain the outcomes from the testbed, such as user engagement.
In related news, EUMETSAT recently hosted a nowcasting tool workshop for 30 international specialists at its headquarters in Darmstadt in Germany. Click here to read the full story.