New African online weather database

A new online weather database  was launched by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), M’bé/Côte d’Ivoire, in July 2017. The weather database will provide access to daily weather records owned or distributed by AfricaRice and can be freely accessed, with no restrictions.

The database includes historical weather data owned by the Center and daily weather data from weather stations set up in major rice hubs across sub-Saharan Africa. It has also daily weather data from public data sources developed and quality-controlled by the AgMERRA project from NASA.

Long-term daily weather database is a prerequisite for studying the agricultural impacts of climate variability and climate change. Such estimates are critical for assessing yield gaps and food security scenarios, developing appropriate agricultural technologies and targeting agricultural investments.

However, it is generally difficult for agricultural scientists to obtain reliable long-term daily weather records from many regions (e.g., sub-Saharan Africa). Sometimes the records are not available or, if available, they have wrong and incomplete information. Often users have to pay high prices or follow long bureaucratic procedures to get access to such data.

The development of the AfricaRice weather database and website started in 2012, when the Center distributed weather stations to its national partners in the 46 rice hubs set up in sub-Saharan Africa. Then, data from AfricaRice research sites in Cotonou (Benin), M’bé (Côte d’Ivoire) and Ndiaye and Fanaye (Senegal) were added. AfricaRice online weather database will continue to grow in the future, according to AfricaRice.

(AfricaRice/ile)

Read more about AgMerra Project

Visit the AfricaRice Weather Database