Nowcasting for Africa : advances, potential and value

The high frequency of intense convective storms means there is a great demand to improve predictions of high-impact weather across Africa. The low skill of numerical weather prediction over Africa, even for short lead times highlights the need to deliver nowcasting based on satellite data. The Global Challenges Research Fund African SWIFT (Science for Weather Information and Forecasting Techniques) project is working to improve the nowcasting of African convective systems and so the ability to provide timely warnings.