Africa, Central Asia and small island states face shortfalls in weather forecasting infrastructure, the UN's meteorological agency said Tuesday, urging more investments in observation technologies.
"We need to make more effort to better observe our planets… Every social (and) economic sector is affected by the weather, by water, by climate issues. To make the right decision it is absolutely essential to have the right information," said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) secretary-general Michel Jarraud.
Weather coverage tends to be better in developed countries than developing ones, he said, and on continents rather than over oceans.
Particularly in large parts of Africa, where governments are confronted by many pressing priorities, weather observation infrastructure "is far from adequate," Jarraud said.
In Central Asia, a population low density compared to a large geographical spread also makes infrastructure maintenance difficult, he added.
Small islands, including those in the Pacific and Indian oceans, also face infrastructure shortfalls, Jarraud said — yet they are critical for weather observation.
Moreover, accurate forecasting can only be accomplished if countries share information, since climatic changes are not limited by national boundaries.
"International exchange is absolutely key and we need to exchange information in real time. If you get observations one day later they are useless for weather prediction … they are useless for warnings of extreme events," he said.
Pointing to a study showing that a dollar spent on weather-related infrastructure will yield 10 dollars in benefits, Jarraud called for more investment.
"It is not possible to prevent hurricanes from happening… but it is possible to provide early warnings, to provide better predictions," he said.
Last September, the weather agency called for a multibillion-dollar boost for forecasting, warning that about 30 percent of economic wealth was directly exposed to the impact of global warming.
The WMO then urged the international community to pay greater attention to helping countries, especially poor nations, to adapt to the extreme weather conditions associated with climate change.
