Anuforom: Accurate Weather Prediction Has Improved Air Safety
The outgoing director general of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Dr. Anthony Anuforom has said that bad weather might have contributed to the many air crashes that happened in Nigeria, but since 10 years ago when the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) improved its activities with the support of government, no accident has been attributed to weather.
Speaking in Abuja at the unveiling of the presentation of the 2017 seasonal rainfall prediction (SRP), Anuforom said NIMET had achieved 80 per cent accuracy in its weather predictions thus exceeding the standard set by the World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) benchmark.
“WMO’s threshold is 60 per cent but we are doing more. This has increased the stakeholders’ confidence in us. People who take SRP seriously are reaping the benefits. We can do things with greater accuracy; we do not need to guess anymore. We have done it not only for the airlines but also for the other sectors of the economy.
“WMO has been using NIMET weather forecast as case studies. NIMET has wielded a lot of influence and has become an international weather information service provider. NIMET has been producing daily weather forecasts for Liberia and Sierra Leone, while some other countries in the subregion have indicated interest for such services to be extended to them,” Anuforom said.
He disclosed that NIMET is in formal collaboration with some international organisations such as United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Markets 11 for the provision of climate information, British-American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Earlier in his remarks, the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika said the publication of SRP “is a fulfillment of the Act setting NIMET.”
He said NIMET is the only agency established by law to make weather forecasts in the country stressing that the agency had not failed to discharge its core responsibility creditably.
“SRP provides accurate and timely weather information to improve economic development. The benefits of SRP are multidimensional. Correct application of SRP helps the understanding of weather and related climate change,” he added.