After heavy flooding: Climate researchers are calling for more weather stations in Africa

How is climate change affecting Africa? Most recently, massive rainfall has led to flooding in the Lake Chad basin. Scientists from the World Weather Attribution Group are now evaluating studies on extreme weather events – and point out the lack of infrastructure.

According to researchers, more weather stations are urgently needed so that the effects of climate change in Africa can be better assessed. In the absence of data, scientists often cannot determine whether climate change was involved in a major drought and subsequent food crisis. In order to understand the impact of global warming on the continent, it is “vital” to invest in a network of rain gauges, researchers write in a study by the World Weather Attribution Group.

Thus, in the study of a 2021 drought that reduced crop yields in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Chad and subsequently led to a food crisis that year, scientists could not estimate the impact of climate change because there were reliable Data from weather stations was lacking. The study focused on the 2021 rainy season in the Sahel, which typically lasts from June to August and heavily affects the following year’s crop yields. In 2021 it started late and was shorter and drier than usual. The dry spell came at a critical time for rain-fed agriculture and led to a drop in production.

In another study on recent extreme events in West Africa, however, the researchers were able to establish a connection with climate change: they came to the conclusion that the heavy rains that fell between June and October in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and other countries caused flooding led to more than 800 deaths, has become much more likely as a result of climate change. Using weather data and computer simulations, the scientists found that climate change has made the Lake Chad Basin’s rainy season 80 times more likely to be as wet as this year’s, and that this year’s rainy season was 20 percent wetter than they were it would have been without the impact of climate change.

However, the exact extent of the impact of climate change is uncertain, as precipitation varies widely across the region. Scientists from Africa, Europe and the USA were involved in the studies within the framework of the World Weather Attribution Group.