Kenya Meteorological Department POSSIBILITIES FOR EXPANSION OF SURFACE WEATHER OBSERVING SYSTEMS IN EAST AFRICA David N. MBURU Kenya Meteorological Department P. O. Box 30259 – 00100 Nairobi, Tel: 254 20 386770, Fax: 254 20 3876955/3877373 E-mail: david.mburu@meteo.go.ke, dvdnjrg@yahoo.com

Introduction The three E. African Meteorological and Hydrological Services are: Kenya Meteorological Department -KMD Tanzania Meteorological Agency –TMA Uganda Department of Meteorology - UDM The three NMHSs existed as East African Meteorological Department until 1977 when they were split

Cooperation Despite the split, the three NMHSs continued to cooperate in Training and data exchange IMTR in conjunction with the University of Nairobi has been a Regional training Center. The Modus operandi with respect to Design, Installation and Management of observatories are similar.

Station Network KMD has 36 Synoptic and Agro Met Stations, Another 15 Agro Met are operated by other organizations TMA has 39 Synoptic and Agro Met Stations UDM has 25 Synoptic and Agro Met Stations and a further 18 Hydro Met stations All the three NMHSs have Networks Sections and Instruments maintenance and calibration Workshops whose primary responsibility is to serve the Observatories.

Installation and operating costs Challenges Installation and operating costs One ordinary synoptic Station requires about US $40,000 to install, (exclusive of construction of office and other utilities). Another US $ 60,000 is required annually to sustain a staff strength of seven observers, support staff and consumables

Challenges -contd Maintenance Repair, routine maintenance of instruments has been a major challenge. Technicians have been dispatched to field stations only when breakdowns are reported. These activities are not scheduled as they should be the case.

Challenges -contd Calibration Workshop calibration equipment have not be replaced due to the high costs. Field and workshop calibration has been inadequate Data sets from self recording and manual instruments can not be reliably compared.

Challenges -contd Communications At most stations, telephone (land lines) or HF radios have been used. The former has been expensive when trunk calls are made. Outages have been common due to late payment of bills and technical faults.

Challenges -contd Data management Printing (offset) of synoptic and Metar registers, observation slips at the H Q. Registers shipped by post or courier to the observatories. Registers shipped back to HQ monthly. Data is digitized/archived at HQ

i. Software development Possibilities i. Software development KMD, (together with Zimbabwe Met, Guinea Met and the UK Met office) has been actively involved in development of Climsoft software which is designed for data entry, archival and retrieval; in WMO recommended format. Climsoft is designed for use both at observatories and data processing/archival sections .

Possibilities- contd i. Software development Climsoft has embedded formulae that automatically calculate some parameters like relative humidity, facilitate generation of statistics and plotting of graphs. It can also prepare text files for data transmission in WMO format. Observers will enter data on real time basis at the stations. No re-entry will be done. Filling of observation registers, use of slide rules and tables have become redundant. Climsoft is free of charge to WMO members countries in Africa.

Possibilities-Contd ii GSM Technology Growth of GSM technology in the last five years has been a phenomenal . Large parts of East Africa (about70% of urban areas) are now accessible through reliable network Providers. A number of observatories (TMA) have been equipped with GSM modems and PCs and are now working reliably. The observer enters data directly to the PC immediately after observation and sends it to a server at the NMC. Due to the reliability of GSM system, messages are received within seconds at a very low cost (about $0. 005) per message.

Possibilities-Contd ii GSM Technology Climsoft/GSM in use Plotter/AMSS Processing & archive

Possibilities-Contd iii. Automatic Weather Systems Recent technological developments have made automatic weather stations cost effective. Ultrasonic wind sensors (virtually Maintenance free) are unaffected by dust. Although the AWS is not cheap, (one system costs about $30,000) maintenance costs are much lower.

Possibilities-Contd iii. Automatic Weather Systems •AWSs are more consistent in their measurement •They provide data more frequently (some can provide data every minute) •They will provide data in all weather, day and night, through out the year •They can be installed in sparsely populated/remote areas quite easily •Relocating the station is easy •The systems are battery/solar powered. They can be equipped with GSM modems

Possibilities-Contd iii. Automatic Weather Systems Figure 3 AWS Network To Plotter/ AMSS

Possibilities-Contd iii. Automatic Weather Systems KMD has started an ambitious modernization program to install automatic weather stations (AWS) countrywide. GSM technology will be used to send data to NMC at 15 minute intervals (see figure 3). Installation of 12 systems is in progress while plans are under way to install 12 more by July 2007. UDM has 10 already and plans are under way to install 5 more.

Conclusions ● GSM technology is currently the most reliable and cost effective way of Communication between NMCs and out stations in East Africa. ● Since many parts of East Africa are covered by GSM network providers, there is an opportunity for improvement and expansion of meteorological observations and services. ● Automatic Weather Observing Systems should form a major component in the future expansion programs. ● Climsoft has helped to eliminate a number of non value adding activities such as offset printing and shipping of registers; and manual computation of some parameters.

Conclusions ● Useful value added products can be produced at the station level thereby helping in dissemination of meteorological information to the local communities. ● E. A. countries must be ready to fund most activities including calibration and maintenance of observing systems. ● In order to realize full benefits, the three NMHSs must embrace Quality Management Framework (QMF) and work towards it.

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