Bringing Early Warnings of Severe Weather to the people of Southern Africa
Weather forecasters use nowcasting technology to observe thunderstorms as they form, and to assess how severe a storm will be. With this, they can provide early warnings so that members of the public know what action they should take to minimise impact.
From March 2023 – June 2025, the WISER EWSA team of meteorologists, academics, economists, and user engagement specialists from South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and the UK will work with disaster risk management agencies and non-governmental organisations, focusing on women and people with disabilities to reduce disaster risk through the co-production of new weather information services and early warnings.
Working with people living in cities, including disadvantaged groups (such as women and people with disabilities) we can help to ensure that everyone receives these warnings, and knows what action to take, to reduce the risk of negative impacts
Adding to a growing range of weather and climate information services, nowcasting technology has recently been applied to early warning in other parts of Africa and beyond but this is the first project to do this in southern Africa. We will work directly with communities in Lusaka (Zambia), Maputo (Mozambique) and Katlehong (South Africa).
Particular outputs of this project include:
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- Better ability of forecasters to use nowcasting technology to track storms
- Stronger links between forecasters and members of the public, including people living in cities
- Early warnings that are understandable and actionable to people living in cities, including disadvantaged groups such as women and people with disabilities.
- Learning how to sustain and scale up these alerts, so that they cover other cities and other parts of the three countries.
Our approach is one of partnership and engagement, which is essential to ensure that the technology translates into useful information for people on the ground. We commit to regular communication and need your feedback to improve the process and enable us to record what work
For more information about the project, please email WISER-EWSA@ncas.ac.uk, or contact the following:
| Meteorology Lead | User Engagement Lead | |
| South Africa | Nico Kroese nico.kroese@weathersa.co.za | Miriam Murambadoro Miriam.murambadoro@weathersa.co.za |
| Mozambique | Gonsalves Júnior Gjunior8@gmail.com | Gilda Monjane/ Marita Monjane gilmonjane@gmail.com/ maritamatilde@gmail.com |
| Zambia | Felix Imbwae Felix.Imbwae@mgee.gov.zm | Willem Colenbrander Willem.colenbrander@gmail.com |