Africa already experiences some of the gravest impacts of climate change, with recurring and persistent drought, extreme heat and extreme rainfall experienced throughout the continent. Recent flooding throughout West and Central Africa has displaced over 8.5 million people, pushing vulnerable populations further into poverty and conflict.
Advanced weather- and climate-forecasting tools and techniques, like those developed at Columbia Climate School’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), can help key stakeholders prepare for the worst.
IRI’s Sylwia Trzaska (left) works with forecasters Diabate Fatoumata Sangho (center), from Mali’s national meteorological agency, and Masilin Gudoshava (right), from the Kenya-based ICPAC regional climate center.
The visitors, who hailed from Zambia, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana and Mali, among other countries, practiced the latest techniques for generating seasonal forecasts for their countries, using their own national climate data as well as the hundreds of data sets available at IRI. They also learned how to produce forecasts at subseasonal scales (2-4 weeks out) using methods IRI has pioneered over the past two decades.
“These aren’t just any training participants-they are leaders who are spearheading the use of best-available forecasting approaches across Africa,” says IRI’s Amanda Grossi, who helped organize the training.
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For Frankline Komolkori, of the Kenya Meteorological Department, forecasting is a science that touches the lives of people both directly and indirectly. “We’re all affected by weather and climate issues,” he said.
The national meteorological agencies of seven other countries were also represented in the training cohort, as well as two large regional institutions: East Africa’s IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) and West Africa’s Regional Center for Training and Application in Agrometeorology and Operational Hydrology (Agrhymet).
Francisca Martey, the deputy director of the Ghana Meteorological Agency, took part in the training along with two of her department heads.
“The IRI has been dedicated to this idea for more than 25 years, delivering climate services across the planet. Trainings such as these allow forecasters not just to learn from their own community, but make new connections with Columbia researchers, faculty and students.
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