The WeatherPod (7 – 12)

With a population of more than 1.2 billion, the African continent faces many weather and climate induced challenges including flooding and droughts, permanent changes in water supply, impacts on agriculture and food, on human health, on shelter and whole ecosystems. Greater water scarcity, more infectious diseases, and worsening food insecurity is increasing the vulnerability of a population already at risk.

Jerry has served as the Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization and twice as the Chief Executive of the South African Weather Service. At the South African Weather Service, he managed the transition of the organisation from being part of a government department to a stand-alone agency supporting both public tasks and commercial services. He studied at the University of Witwatersrand where he completed a master’s degree in public and development management and an MA in synoptic climatology of Southern Africa.

Makoto Suwa is a Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the World Bank. He leads and supports a wide range of World Bank activities and projects that aim to strengthen weather, climate, and hydrological services in Africa. Prior to joining the World Bank, Makoto worked for the World Meteorological Organization, at both its headquarters in Geneva and its Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi. He also taught at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and Lycée de Kigali in Rwanda, and briefly worked for the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Office for Climate Change in Tokyo. Makoto holds a Ph.D. in climate science from Princeton University and a master of environmental management degree from Duke University.

She obtained a BSc (1999) and PhD (2003) in Geography from the University of Bristol, UK. She then worked at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy on the European Flood Alert System and then from 2004 lectured at the Department of Geography at King’s College London, UK. In 2012 she moved to the University of Reading; to a joint post between the Department of Geography and Environmental Science and the Department of Meteorology.

Hannah works closely with partners including the UK Environment Agency, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the UK Met Office, the Red Cross Climate Centre & other hydrometeorological services and humanitarian actors. She advises government, forecasting authorities and humanitarian agencies on national and international flooding incidents and forecasting science and provides expert commentary in the media.

Doug Parker is a Professor of Meteorology at the University of Leeds in the UK and his research investigates the dynamics of weather systems such as cumulonimbus storms, cyclones and monsoons and explains their role in the climate system. Doug played a leading role in the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) programme, 2003-present. AMMA is the largest and most extensive multidisciplinary research programme ever conducted in Africa, and arguably the biggest programme of its kind anywhere in the world. He is co-leader of African SWIFT project (2017-2021), which aims to improve weather forecasts in Africa.

Mariane Diop-Kane was a forecaster in Senegal prior to obtaining her PhD at the University of Reading. After post-doctoral positions at Météo France and the University of Leeds, Mariane worked at the ACMAD African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development. Following a period as Director of Meteorology of the National Agency for Civil Aviation and Meteorology of Senegal, ANACIM, she is currently the Programme Manager, WMO Africa Regional Office, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She has played a significant role in the African Swift project.

Doug and Mariane co-edited a textbook on weather forecasting in West Africa. “Meteorology of Tropical West Africa: The Forecasters’ Handbook” is the first book of its kind, collecting the scientific principles and practical forecasting techniques for a particular climatic region.

In this episode of The WeatherPod, it’s our pleasure to welcome into the studio Rebecca Leonardi, Managing Partner of WX Risk Global.

Wx Risk Global is a global weather risk solutions company that provides weather and natural peril risk mitigation products and services to individuals, organizations, cities, and nations world-wide, that are the potential victims of increasingly frequent climate-related disasters.

Weather risk solutions provide capital resources after an extreme weather-related event and typical applications include agriculture, green energy, budget defence and catastrophe protection.

In addition, the company operates an Impact Investing service which aims to offer investors the opportunity to strike a balance between financial returns and social good. Typical investment areas include water resources management, sustainable energy, pollution prevention & waste management, and health improvement.

For more information, visit: https://www.wxriskglobal.com/

The impact of COVID-19 on our lives and livelihoods shows clearly that protecting our health is a huge concern for all societies. This is especially so in the face of climate change which threatens to create environments that may exacerbate existing climate-sensitive diseases and introduce new ones.

But just how prepared are we?

To discuss these concerns, hosts Alan Thorpe and David Rogers have invited Madeleine Thomson into the studio. Madeleine is the Interim Head of Our Planet, Our Health at the Wellcome Trust. She previously held senior research positions at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She has also served as director of the IRI/Pan American Heath Organization -WHO Collaborating Centre on Early Warning Systems for Malaria and Other Climate-Sensitive Diseases.

Educated at the University of Sheffield, Imperial College London and the University of Liverpool, she originally trained as a field entomologist and spent much of her early career doing operational research to support large-scale health interventions, mainly in Africa.

Madeleine is the author of “Climate Information for Public Health Action” with Climate scientist Simon Mason.

As many listeners will know, ECMWF is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 countries, working closely with their national meteorological services.

Over its 45 years history, it has established itself as the world leader in skilful global numerical weather predictions. It now employs around 360 staff from more than 30 countries.

Florence Rabier has been Director-General of ECMWF since January 2016, following two years leading the Centre’s Forecast Department. An internationally recognised expert in Numerical Weather Prediction, her career so far has taken her back and forth between the French national weather service, Météo-France, and ECMWF.