Retirado de "Finland in Africa, Global Partership" edicão de Abril 2002


http://global.finland.fi




Meteorology helps people deal with the worst the weather can do




At the end of the rainy season in the spring of 2002, the southern parts of Mozambique were inundated with floodwater on a catastrophic scale. About one sixth of the country, an area about half the size of Finland, suffered heavy damage. Countless roads, bridges and buildings were destroyed.




The consequences of the floods were the theme of a conference in Rome in May that year and one of its results was that Finland and Mozambique started work on a joint meteorological project. This aims to make Mozambique’s weather services more efficient and thus improve forecasting and communications systems to reduce the impact of any future natural catastrophes.




The weather service project that Finland agreed to support started up immediately in 2000. Its first stage concentrates on repairing the damage that the floods caused to the weather monitoring stations. This phase will be completed by the end of October this year, the Finnish Meteorological Institute having taken care of the support services.


Mozambique suffers not only from floods, but also from periods of excessive dryness and from hurricanes which hit the coast every year.




Naturally it is difficult and even impossible to influence weather conditions and rainy or dry seasons. Their consequences can nevertheless be anticipated and preparations made accordingly. Martti Mäkelä, regional manager at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, praises Mozambique’s decision to ask for help in developing its weather services. ”They are quite right to have done this,” he says, ”because the services that a meteorological institute can offer are extremely relevant to forecasting flooding and storms, for instance, and to building up early warning systems.”






Meteorology has a long history in Africa




People are often surprised to learn that many African countries have had well-organized and detailed records about their local weather since the nineteenth century. The observations that have been made date back to the colonial period. As Martti Mäkelä remarks with only slight exaggeration, many colonists set up three things as soon as they arrived: a church, a school and a weather station. In the 1980s people wanted to use the information for the purposes of research, but lacked both the equipment and the know-how to deal with the data. Finland then set up a project to meet these needs. Nine countries south of the Sahara participated in trying to standardise the levels of their meteorological institutes. Mäkelä himself was one of the people working with the project at that time.




“Finland is one of the world’s major development cooperation partners in the field of meteorology, partly because Finland has long produced one of the world’s best sounding systems,” Mäkelä says. Equipment has also been supplied to many countries through the World Meteorological Organization.




“This is one of the reasons for Finland being so actively involved where meteorology is concerned. Finland is an important donor when it comes to supplying equipment in dev elopment cooperation”, Mäkelä adds.




The first stage of the new project centres on repairing the weather stations that were damaged in the floods, building them up again and renewing equipment that was destroyed. Information flow is important when it comes to forecasting the weather and preparing for its effects.






Weather radar keeps track of hurricane movements




The project’s second phase was started up immediately at the beginning of 2002 and a competition for offers to supply supporting services will be held in September. The contents of this phase have already been planned with the director of INAM, Mozambique’s meteorological institute. During the planning it was noted that flooding is not always as heavy as in the spring of 2000, but tropical cyclones or local hurricanes seem to strike the coast of Mozambique every year. As a hurricane approaches it is very important to be able to track its movements so that possible precautionary measures and evacuations can be undertaken. The best way to achieve this is by using satellite and radar systems.




“Storms that are on the move far away in the Indian Ocean are first tracked by satellite. Then, as they start to approach the coast, weather radar posts provide an excellent means to follow their advance,” Martti Mäkelä explains.




At the moment there is not a single weather radar working in Mozambique, so under the circumstances the second phase will aim to construct an adequate weather radar network for the country. The radar network would thus also be extended in the whole region, for example in the direction of SouthAfrica.




“This development also places considerable demands on the receiving country,” Mäkelä points out. “The radar equipment has to be kept in good working order from a technical point of view and people must have the know-how to use it properly.”


However Mäkelä does not appear too worried in this respect. Just recently he helped to lay the foundation stone for a weather observation station being built at Xai Xai, and says that his visit was a very positive surprise after the last time he was there, almost 10 years ago.




“There has been tremendous progress. Meteorological knowledge has advanced by leaps and bounds. Weather services for the general public have also developed noticeably: nowadays people can see the weather forecast regularly on television,” Mäkelä says contentedly.




Reija Kiviluoto






Project information




Project: Support for Mozambique’s weather service system


Aims: To improve Mozambique’s weather services and develop an early warning system to be prepared for natural catastrophes.


Duration: 2000-2003


Total budget: 25.5 million Finnish marks, of which Finland’s share is 25.2 million marks. (About 4.3 and 4.2 million euros respectively)


Implementation: Mozambique’s Meteorological Institute (INAM)


Support services: Finnish Meteorological Institute (First stage):




15.04.2002

Country Finland