African weather station network

Many African countries do not have the meteorological knowledge base needed for sustainable development of human arid natural resources. Collection and use of weather data is hindered by a complex set of challenges, and lack of government funds is only part of the problem. There is also a general poor quality of infrastructure for transport and communication. Most data is typically collected by hand and communicated to the main office in written form or by phone. Human resources represent another bottleneck as skilled computer science technicians tend to be hired by the private sector. Finally, most improvements in hydrometeorological observation networks tend to be project-driven without taking the long-term sustainability of the network into account. The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) project seeks to tackle these challenges through three major innovations. First, it seeks to leverage recent advances in sensor and communication . technologies to develop cost-efficient and low-maintenance weather stations. Second, the project seeks to place the stations at secondary schools and integrate meteorological measurements into the curriculum. Lastly, TAHMO wiU seek to maintain the network financially by i developing products that can be sold to comrnercial parties. The main idea S behind this project is to develop a B dense network of hydrometeorological