GCRF African SWIFT Testbed 1 Report


Testbed 1 was conducted in the first part of 2019, from an operational forecasting office at IMTR Nairobi, at the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD).

The Testbed was designed to support SWIFT’s programme of research capability-building in the science of weather prediction. New forecasting and evaluation products were tested. The outcomes of the Testbed will be used to steer the research and development of these tools, as well as to provide meteorological case studies and to stimulate new hypotheses.

Successes of Testbed 1 include the real-time use of satellite-based Nowcasting products (NWC SAF products), convection-permitting model ensembles from the UK Met Office and systematic forecast evaluation. Testbed 1 also devised and refined an effective programme of work for operational synoptic forecasting, nowcasting and evaluation, which could form the basis for new Standard Operating Procedures.

Sample nowcasting slide for East Africa

Paper Information

Fletcher JK, Parker DJ, Hartley A, Nkiaka E, Adefisan E, Clarke S, Stein T, Koros D, Woodhams B. 2021.
GCRF African SWIFT Testbed 1 report. University of Leeds. http://doi.org/10.5518/100/73

About the Author

Dr Jennifer Fletcher is a Senior Research Scientist with the GCRF African SWIFT project, using satellite data to better understand the dynamics of convection over Africa. Also contributing to efforts to improve satellite-based nowcasting tools.