A shortage of weather data is putting many African countries at an economic disadvantage, experts believe.
Tanzania is at the centre of a meteorological experiment that promises to transform lives across Africa.
Tech start-up, Kukua, wants to introduce hundreds of low-cost weather stations in the country and beyond, to fill what has become a troubling data void.
The World Bank is also backing a scheme being rolled out in Dar es Salaam and elsewhere to spread personal weather monitors.
Without accurate weather data, people don’t have evidence of what the weather is doing at ground level across the continent.
And this, as former TV weather presenter Peter Gibbs explains, can be a matter of “life and death”: ‘There’s no weather station measuring what’s going on’
Climate change has brought more extreme weather conditions to many parts of the world and Africa is no exception. Farmers also face less predictable seasons.
