Recent trend in weather forecasting in West Africa using satellite imageries and global models

Weather Forecasting and prediction in West Africa had been beclouded with problems of scarcity of data,and hence low accuracy. This has adversely affected the economies of the Countries within the sub- continent in terms of Agricultural yield and losses due to inadequate warning of severe floods and erosion caused by severe storms/line squalls. The paper starts by reviewing the various traditional methods of forecasting in West Africa(both for real time and seasonal forecasting). The paper then axamines the use of Numerical products and satellite imageries (from Meteo France, Hardly center, ECMWF and EUMETSAT) which are recent developments for studying the evolution of West African synoptic  systems.Typical cases of severe dust haze (5th January & 12 Dec 1998 and 12Dec 1999) and lines squalls (29th may 1998 and16 sept 1999) which  were accurately forecasted are highlighted. The paper then enumerates the economic loses/gain due to the above accurate prediction .The paper finally advocates the need for West African countries to develop their own models or improve the parameterization indices of the existing Tropical models in use now, to suit the needs of the subregion.