Useful Weather Links - West Africa

Here are a few of the web sites that provide observations of actual and predicted weather for West Africa and here is a glimpse of the Changing Face of Africa provided by the United Nations Environment Program.

• CPC Africa Desk: Real time monitoring across the African continent.
• Real-Time Weather Plots for the Northern Hemisphere Tropics from SUNY, Albany.
• African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD) Weather Watch: Current weather and archived bulletins.
• Tropical IR Hovmoller Series - Africa Sector, courtesy of Brian McNoldy (CSU) and NRL Monterey.
• NOAA Tropical Satellite stitched images of Tropical Atlantic basin (from NRL Monterey)
• MOST Scatterometer Winds from the Marine Observing Systems Team, NOAA.
• SSM/I Imagery (Including rainfall rate estimation).
• Satellite Derived analyses from CIMMS. Includes Shear, Vorticity etc for past 24 h.
• MODIS images: amazing almost real-time images - skillful interpretation needed to see AEWs though!
• GOES E/W NASA: GOES East and West imagery from Global Hydrology and Climate Centre.
• Reynold's SST Analysis, from NHC, NOAA
• SSTs
• About the NHC and internal links to other information, analysis and forecast products.
• The Met Office forecasts and satellite imagery for Africa.
• BBC Weather report for Africa.
• African weather: local website.
• Current ITCZ Hovmoellers, created and maintained by Brian McNoldy, Colorado State University.
• NRL Monterey Current Tropical Satellite images.

Here are a few of the web sites that provide information on African Easterly Waves and other large-scale waves.

• Real-time diagnostics of different convective modes for the Northern Hemisphere Tropics from Paul Roundy at SUNY, Albany.
• BOMS Real-time filtering of OLR data to monitor and predict the convective variations of the Madden-Julian oscillation and various convectively coupled equatorial waves, based on the "climatological" spectral peaks of a long record of satellite-observed data.
• CIMMS Tropical Wave Tracking - includes an archive.
• Total Precipitable Water: Morphed Integrated Microwave Imagery at CIMSS (MIMIC-TPW).

Rainfall Data

• Latest rainfall over West Africa, animations and archive material.
• Global Precipitation Analysis with links to TRMM etc.
• Experimental Geostationary Rain Estimation over Africa from NRL Monterey.
• TRMM Precip: Real time 3hour accumulation estimations from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM).
• Info on TRMM products.
• TRMM TMI Quick Looks from 1997 - current.
• Africa Rainfall Estimate Climatology: Rainfall estimation at multiple timescales from CPC FEWS-NET (CPC ARC).
• Estimated daily precipitation (RFEv2) in Africa from the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS): NOAA NCEP CPC FEWS Africa DAILY RFEv2:

The Saharan Air Layer (SAL) and Aerosol Observations

• Saharan Air Layer Analyses from CIMSS.
• Aerosol Observations from NRL Monterey

Current NWP Analysis

• Source code for objective trough/jet in gridded data sets.
• NCEP Environmental Modelling Centre: Overview.
• GFS High Resolution Analysis Animations in real time. Advanced diagnostics from Ron McTaggart-Cowan via SUNY Albany.
• NCEP NOMADS interactive plotting: DIY analysis and forecast plots.
• Current NCEP Analysis
• Links to other NWP centres from Tropical Prediction Center, NWS, NOAA.

Surface Observations

• Current surface observations from IMPETUS.
• Compare the extent of the current synoptic/ship observations for West Africa input at ECMWF, to the global coverage.
• Station rainfall measurements and climatology from CPC FEWS-NET.
• Monsoon Monitoring using daily mean OLR from NOAA.
• Niamey, Niger.
• Dakar, Senegal.
• Bamako, Mali.
• Accra, Ghana.

Upper Air Observations

• ECMWF AMMA products.
• Upper Air Soundings from the University of Wyoming.
• Vertical cross-sectionsat different African weather stations from NWS National Hurricane Centre

Forecasts

• Interactive forecasts from NOAA via University of Wyoming.
• NCEP Medium Range: up to 6 days.
• Tropical Prediction Centre, NHC: Marine forecasts.
• Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch (TAFB) of the NHC (formerly Tropical Prediction Center, TPC). The TAFB generates analyses and forecasts over the tropical and subtropical eastern North and South Pacific and the North Atlantic basins year-round. TAFB products include but are not limited to: High Seas, Offshore Waters, Marine Weather Discussion, Tropical Weather Discussion, and graphical surface and ocean wave analyses and forecasts. This branch also produces satellite-based rainfall estimates for the international community.
• TAFB Forecasts and Analyses: current.

Data

• NESDIS Archived Global Satellite Images from 1983 onwards.
• SST data.
• Marine Data from Oceanweather inc.
• National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), US.