In a bid to synergize efforts to combat the effects of climate change and maximize the benefits of weather forecast in the region, stakeholders from Meteorological and hydrological as well as related fields gathered in Abuja at the 2022 regional climate outlook forum for west Africa and the sahel region.
At the end of the 9 day workshop, the DG NiMet Prof Mansur Matazu represented by Engr mailadi Yususf congratulated participants for their resilience and stressed the need for heeding to weather predictions and warnings.
“Occurrence of erratic weather which knows no geographical boundaries by the way are beyond human control. It is possible however to adapt or mitigate the effects of adverse weather if a forecast of the expected weather can be obtained in time”.
The representative of world Meteorological organization , Benard Gomez as well as the DG Nema and others spoke on the urgency of brainstorming on weather issues.
“The issue of data sharing for better service provision is of paramount importance for Members in this region. With increasing capacity and capabilities in modelling and use of NWP, focus on quantity and quality data generation and timely sharing is highly desirable”.
He gave an insight into current weather related challenges.
“The frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events are projected to increase almost everywhere in Africa with additional global warming”.
“Floods, especially flash floods in urban areas, and storms contributed the most to internal disaster-related displacement, followed by droughts in 2020”.
“Food insecurity increases by 5-20 percentage points with each flood or drought in sub-Saharan Africa”.
At the end of the workshop a communique and guidelines were adopted to help mitigate climate issues in the region.
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