In Africa, the lack of meteorological information increases climate risks

2023-11-28 03:45:08

LETTER FROM AFRICA

Flooding after torrential rains in Dolow district, southwest Somalia, on November 25, 2023. HASSAN ALI ELMI / AFP

In May, floods and landslides caused by torrential rains around Lake Kivu, on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, killed at least 600 people. When they wanted to look into this catastrophe a few weeks later, World Weather Attribution scientists found themselves “deprived”, says Friederike Otto, co-founder of this international network of researchers who study the influence of anthropogenic changes on extreme climate events. “Due to a lack of data, we weren’t even able to tell how much rain fell, where and when”underlines this climatologist at Imperial College London.

The episode illustrates one of the deficiencies from which the continent most exposed to the consequences of climate change suffers: the lack of meteorological information. While the 28th World Climate Conference (COP28), which begins Thursday November 30 in Dubai, must debate the realization of a “loss and damage” fund to financially help vulnerable countries victims of warming, “how will they be able to estimate the damage suffered if they do not have the means to observe and measure it? »interrogator Friederike Otto.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Europe and the United States combined – 1.1 billion inhabitants and 20 million square kilometers – have 636 weather radars, an essential tool for monitoring precipitation. Africa, with 1.3 billion inhabitants and 30 million square kilometers, has only thirty-seven.

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“Despite covering a fifth of the globe’s total surface area, Africa has the least developed Earth observation network of any continent” and this one “is deteriorating”also alerted the WMO in a report published in 2020. Across the continent, weather stations intended to record temperature, humidity, barometric pressure or wind intensity are too scattered or in poor condition: in sub-Saharan countries, just 20% provide reliable service.

High material costs and scarcity of qualified personnel

Yet, “Africa, thanks to satellites, does not exactly lack climate data”, underlines Brice Montfraix, expert within the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and Africa program. This joint initiative of the European Union and the African Union allows the continent to exploit images from European Space Agency satellites, such as Sentinel. “What is missing are the means to verify and interpret this data, to transform them into useful information, because the capacities in terms of ground equipment and expertise within meteorological services are generally too incomplete, depending on countries “continues Mr. Montfraix.

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