Rwanda rebuilds its weather forecasting system after devastating civil war

NPR : Detailed seasonal forecasts are critical for farmers in Rwanda, a hilly country where the weather varies by altitude. However, Rwanda’s weather-tracking system was completely destroyed during the bloody civil war and genocide that erupted in 1994. The weather system had consisted of about 100 volunteers who recorded temperature and rainfall data from instruments at small outdoor observation stations. Over the 100-day conflict, many of the stations were destroyed and the volunteers who staffed them were killed. It took some 15 years to recruit new volunteers and reassemble the weather network. Then, to fill in the 15-year data gap, climate scientist Tufa Dinku of Columbia University created a substitute data record by estimating rainfall and temperature through the use of satellite imagery and computer models. The result is a weather-forecasting setup that may one day rival those of the rest of the world.