New insights into how climate change affects lightning over Africa from unique high-resolution simulations

Lightning is a serious hazard in many parts of Africa, which is one of the main global hotspots of lightning activity. As well as the risk to people and infrastructure, lightning is a natural cause of wildfires. Lightning also affects key features of atmospheric chemistry such as ozone production in the upper troposphere. As with many weather phenomena, lightning is likely to respond to climate change, with past studies generally suggesting that there will be an increase in lightning.

Join our online edit-a-thon to contribute climate change information to Wikipedia

At a webinar last week CDKN and Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) released an invitation to participate in an online climate change edit-a-thon, Wiki4Climate, as well as a brand new guide on how to edit Wikipedia for climate change professionals. The event will run from 24 November to 1 December 2020, and is open to anyone with an interest in climate change, and a desire to improve Wikipedia content or share information.

Dismantling South-North power dynamics to create new climate knowledge

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change recently, Vincent and fellow researchers say that climate services which aim to provide accessible and useful weather and climate information for decision making in sub-Saharan Africa need to be done collaboratively and in a way that brings users of climate information into the knowledge-generation process. Co-production as a process is a way of doing that.

October 2020 Newsletter

Welcome to the October 2020 edition of the Future Climate for Africa newsletter showcasing the recent highlights and work of FCFA.

Leadership and funding at centre of climate policy study in sub-Saharan Africa

Researchers surveyed more than 100 government officials in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia over six years to see how politics shaped climate policy.

Hot, dry soils drive thunderstorms in Africa’s Sahel

The number of intense thunderstorms over the Sahel region of West Africa has tripled since the 1980s, contributing to an overall increase in annual rainfall in the region. This is caused by rising tem-peratures in the Sahara, which are driving more thunderstorm activity over the Sahel.

Webinar: How to contribute climate change information to Wikipedia

Are you interested in contributing to Wikipedia, but don’t know how? Does your institution have climate change content to share, but has never considered using Wikipedia as an outreach channel? If so, this webinar is for you.

Online journalism training to boost climate reporting in Africa

The news media is a load-bearing wall in a healthy democracy. Its role is to act as a watchdog of government, and to keep citizens informed and participating in the running of a country. Central to this is keeping society informed about the most pressing challenges and threats.

Women farmers’ diverse needs call for targeted climate information in sub-Saharan Africa

Small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa need accessible climate information, such as short-term and seasonal weather forecasts, in order to make important crop and land management decisions. New research from Malawi shows that this information needs to be tailored to farmers’ varying education levels and needs.

Harare water delivery: researcher-practitioner collaboration supports climate agility

October 5, 2020
// Climate research, Water

The Harare municipality has to deliver water to over a million people living in and around the Zimbabwean capital, a population which has grown three-fold since most of the water infrastructure was built in the 1980s. Since then, the city has not been able to expand its water infrastructure to keep apace with urban growth.