Transcript SOME POSSIBLE USES OF CLIMATE INFORMATION BY S.N. MARIGI KENYA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT P.O.BOX 3029 NAIROBI INTRODUCTION • Climate: Average conditions of weather elements ( Rainfall, Temperature,pressure,humidity, wind speed and.

SOME POSSIBLE USES OF CLIMATE
INFORMATION
BY
S.N. MARIGI
KENYA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT
P.O.BOX 3029
NAIROBI
INTRODUCTION
• Climate: Average conditions of weather elements (
Rainfall, Temperature,pressure,humidity, wind speed
and direction) of a given place taken over a long time,
usually over 30 years or more.
• Climate anomaly: Departure from average
•
As many socio-economic activities depend on climate,
anomalies in climate provide the difference between
wealth and poverty, feast and famine, health and
disease and even life and death.
• Highlights on how climate information relates to some
individual socio-economic sectors are given next
Agriculture
• It is important that agriculturists and the
farming community in general understand the
behaviour of the climatic parameters that affect
crops and other plants.
• Knowledge of climate variability is vital in order
to minimise losses and maximise production in
agriculture
• Medium to long-term weather predictions are
useful in planning and operation of agricultural
activities while the daily weather forecasts help
the farmer to organise his day
Water resources
• Over the globe, a wide spectrum of water
resources exist which consists of both surface
water resources (natural and man-made water
storage systems including reservoirs, rivers, lakes,
wetlands and oceans) and ground water resources
(rechargeable)
• The terrestrial-surface water resource
systems are strongly influenced by climatic
factors such as rainfall and evaporation
• we are aware that water is becoming a limited
resource each year with many different users
acting in conflict
Cont’d
In order to manage the water needs for agriculture,
domestic uses or industry, it is essential to have a
good knowledge of the water supply and demand
through good use of climate information
• The design of dams for hydro-electric power
generation, irrigation and fishing calls for a deep
understanding of the climate regime of the
catchment area of the dam
Cont’d
* If the dam bursts due to inadequate climate
information at the planning stage, the
consequences to the economy of the country
concerned could be severe because of the
enormous construction costs of the dam and the
possible loss of human and animal life and
property caused by flooding downstream
* Without adequate climate planning data,
engineers could build larger than necessary
dams resulting in waste of public funds
Health
• It is now obvious that there is a direct link
between climate information and health
monitoring and protection.
• It is known and has been demonstrated that
diseases like malaria are always located in
areas with a significant degree of humidity.
• There are other diseases that spread or
reduce due to changes in air temperature
Aviation
• Aircrafts flying from or to an airport must be
provided with weather forecasts for takeoff,
along the entire flight route and at the
destination.
• Weather information is used by airline operators
in determining the optimum load and fuel
reserves for each flight sector in addition to
ensuring the safety of the aircraft and its
contents. Such weather includes flight level wind speed
and direction, temperatures, cloud heights and types and
any other significant weather phenomena that would
affect the performance of the aircraft.
Marine environment and services
• The relevancy of climate information to the development
and management of aquatic resources is well understood
• Knowledge of the water temperatures of different parts
of water masses helps to map out breeding areas of fish
and other water borne living species and their
movement(helps to efficiently and effectively carry out
marine activities over the oceans, seas and inland waters)
• Information on wind speed and direction and, hence, the
state of the water masses is vital for the efficient
operation of the shipping industry
• The shipping industry also requires routine and timely
warnings of accurately forecast severe weather systems
like cyclones to enable ships avoid dangerous routes
Tourism Industry
This is an important industry to many
countries.
There is no doubt that accurate
climatological information and daily
weather forecasts are required to enable
tour operators to plan the movement of
tourists within the countries on both longterm and daily basis
Climatological information is
required also for siting tourist hotels
and other recreational facilities.
Manufacturing and processing industries
• In these industries, the ambient
temperature is of extreme importance
• Factory planners and builders require
extreme minimum and maximum
temperatures for purposes of designing and
building a factory in a given location
• Relative humidity is also of considerable
importance as it affects the level of human
comfort
Environmental Management
• Information on rainfall, evaporation, wind and
temperature is vital for research and general
ecological studies aimed at preventing erosion
and environmental degradation and forest fires
• The protection of the environment in
general requires knowledge and monitoring
of climate parameters and it is essential for
governments to understand such
phenomena as climate change and its
possible impacts on the economies for
appropriate decisions.
Energy
• Due to escalating costs and finite nature of
conventional energy sources such as oil and gas,
the development of alternative sources of energy
such as wind and solar has become crucial to
many countries.
• The meteorological community provides the
relevant institutions/organisations with
measurements of wind strength, solar radiation,
sunshine duration and cloud cover in an effort to
develop inexpensive methods of harnessing wind
and solar energy
Others
• There are many operational services where
intensive use of climate information is made. In
this respect, one may mention:
 Fire monitoring
 Airborne pollutant transport follow-up
 Desert locust surveillance
 Etc
Concluding remarks
It is apparent that climate information has a role to
play in the socio-economic development of countries.
To achieve this effectively and efficiently, National
Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs):
•have to establish and maintain adequate weather observation
networks
•have to establish and maintain both national and
international communication networks to enable observation
sites to move data to National Meteorological Centres (NMCs)
and bring in data and products from other parts of the globe.
•must have the capability to process data and make forecasts
through an improvement of human resource skills at the
NMHSs.
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