Last week the Weather and Climate Information Services (WISER) Early Warnings for Southern Africa project hosted workshop in Kanyama and Lusaka central. The workshops were to prepare for the 2024-25 rainy season. 2024-25 will see co-produced early warnings alerts for thunderstorms issued throughout a “king-size” testbed. This expands a two week testbed held in January to February 2024, which enabled the weather service to trial the technique of nowcasting.
The first day was attended by residents of the Kanyama area of Lusaka who are regularly exposed to flash flooding as a result of storms. The purpose was to sensitise participants on weather information and update them on the first testbed. There was a particular focus on inclusion of people with disabilities, with a strong contingent of people with hearing disabilities, whose participation was enabled by a sign language interpreter.
The second day took place in Lusaka central and was attended by national level representatives of government departments who were exposed to nowcasting for the first time. This includes representatives from agriculture, water and sanitation, health, civil defence, and civil society organisations working on climate change and disaster risk reduction.
The third and fourth days took place at Zambia Meteorological Department with the primary focus of planning operations for the forthcoming “king-size” testbed. These days were attended by Zambian weather forecasters, the project team, and community observers from Kanyama, who will this year continue to play a key role in providing feedback on nowcasts and the presentation of information to ensure it is accessible.