For the next ten days, members of the Kulima team will be participating in an intensive testbed in Zambia as part of the ongoing Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) Early Warnings for Southern Africa (EWSA) project. WISER EWSA aims to co-produce short term weather alerts for thunderstorms.
The intensive testbed marks a period within a broader “king size” testbed which runs for the entirety of the rainy season from 1st October 2024-30th April 2025. During the king size testbed, nowcasts are issued by the national meteorological services when heavy and impactful rainfall is anticipated. During the intensive testbed, nowcasts are issued every two hours regardless of conditions.
Community mobilisers receive the nowcasts via cellphone and validate the accuracy and the impact of extreme weather events, and also commit to sharing it within their communities. Daily community hubs convene the community mobilisers, who are members of the Satellite Disaster Management Committees, with a wider range of urban community members. A particular focus is placed on inclusion of women and people with disability as part of the process of working together to define impact levels and co-produce levels of alert.
The king size testbed and its embedded intensive testbed are an expanded ambition following on from southern Africa’s first testbed, which was held over a two week period in January 2025.