Rwanda joins the World in celebration of World Meteorological Day

On this Wednesday 23^rd March 2016, Rwanda joins the World in celebrating the World Meteorological Day with the theme: “Hotter, Drier, Wetter. Face the Future”. 

The theme was chosen due to the fact that our climate is changing, and this is not just a future scenario, it is happening now. The climate will continue to change over the coming decades as more and more heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted by human activities accumulate in the atmosphere. 

The world just had its hottest year 2015, hottest five year period and hottest decade. The fact is that on record 15 of the 16 hottest years have occurred this century. 2011-2015 was the hottest five-year period on record. Climate change increased the risk of excess heat, by significant margin according to scientific assessments. 

Commenting on the World Meteorological Day, John Ntaganda Semafara the Director General at Meteo Rwanda and the Permanent Representative of Rwanda with the World Meteorological Organization said that today is a historic day for the 53^rd year of Rwanda being a member of World Meteorological Organization and the 65^th year since the World Meteorological Organization was recognized as a specialized Agency of the United Nations. 

The global average surface temperature in 2015 smashed all previous records, and was about 0.73°C above the 1961-1990 average of 14.0°C. For the first time, the temperature reached the milestone of 1°C above the pre-industrial 1880-1899 period. This means we are already half-way towards the 2° C limit, above which life on the planet will become increasingly precarious.

Mr. Musoni Didace, Division Manager of Data Observations, Quality Control and Processing Division said that from the meteorological data records, Rwanda experienced the increase of about 1°C which is almost in agreement with the World Global Concern. 

Rainfall varies naturally from year to year and from decade to decade, influenced by a Global circulation phenomenon often influenced by the El Niño and other climate drivers.

In addition to natural climate variability, climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions will have an increasing impact on the water cycle. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the contrast in precipitation between wet and dry regions and between wet and dry seasons will increase during the 21st century.

Wet areas will become wetter, and dry areas drier. The extent and speed of these changes will depend on whether we achieve the target of keeping temperature increases to less than 2°Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

Drought in East Africa in 1998/1999 into early 2000 resulted in widespread loss of life and food shortages. Most of the Southern and Eastern parts of Rwanda were impacted heavily by this drought. The arrival of El Niño in 2015 brought significant rains in the Equatorial East Africa and in particular to Rwanda Central and Western parts of the country realized above normal rainfalls and some pockets of Eastern parts experienced drier conditions than was predicted mainly due to local characteristics. 

Rwanda Meteorological Agency as the country’s authority in weather and climate monitoring and related information dissemination, was able to generate early warnings with regard to the current El Nino and on timely basis was able to issue and disseminate warnings about likely extreme weather events of high impacts. 

The Director General of Rwanda Meteorology Agency (Meteo Rwanda) thanked the Government of Rwanda which responded promptly to the information given by Meteo Rwanda by martialing both human and material resources to contain the impacts of likely disasters through inter-ministerial response committees that were strengthened.  

Fortunately, the world’s governments are now fully convinced of the scientific evidence of climate change and the need to take urgent action. More research and investment is needed for advancing low-carbon technologies, particularly in the energy sector and environmental management. As of now many policies, technologies and actions are available, and their deployment needs to be scaled up locally as well as internationally. We therefore call upon individual citizens, community leaders; private sector organizations, civil society organizations, local government, regional organizations and the United Nations system to all contribute towards combating climate change impacts.