The absence of location-specific forecasts in daily weather updates has been a concern to many Ghanaians.

But the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) says this is possible with the availability of about 4 radar systems, 120 automated weather stations, 350 agro-meteorological stations, and 600 gauges spread across the country.

By integrating radar and satellite data, the resultant weather forecasts are poised to be highly dependable, offering valuable insights to facilitate informed decision-making but these instruments and equipments are expensive.

“The synoptic type of the weather station has an approximate price of $65,000 per unit. For the agromet model, the cost ranges from $30,000 to $40,000 per unit. As for radar systems, their cost is no less than $2 million US dollars,” says Acting Director General of GMet, Eric Asuman.

GMet is responsible for monitoring meteorological conditions within the Flight Information Region overseen by the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority.

This involves providing regular updates and alerts about impending weather changes on a 24-hour basis.

The agency issues weather reports to Air Traffic Control every half-hour and delivers 24-hour Aerodrome Forecasts.

“If you were to visit the various airports in Ghana, you would find established stations at each one, either meteorological stations or meteorological offices, that furnish weather information. When you're seated within an aircraft, the details provided by the pilot regarding the upcoming weather conditions, turbulence projections during the flight, temperature variations, and the weather at your destination all stem from these meteorological entities. In Ghana, the responsible institution for delivering weather services for aviation is GMet. Studies indicate that meteorology constitutes a significant 60% of the essential information required by aircraft,” Mr. Asuman.

Despite the crucial provision of these services, there exists an outstanding financial matter involving two airport entities: the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL).

They owe the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) about US$10 million, covering airport passenger taxes, landing fees, and charges for the period spanning October 2019 to June 2021.

Section 12 of the Ghana Meteorological Agency Act, 2019 (Act 1002) amended, mandates that the agency's fees encompass 10% of landing and overflight charges by GAA, as well as 5% of airport tax from aerodrome operations. However, records show that GCAA and GACL collectively owe GMet a total of US$10,044,380 for airport charges from October 2019 to June 2021.

This debt was highlighted in the 2022 audit of public accounts. The Auditor General's recommendation is for the chief director to ensure prompt recovery of the owed amount from GCAA and GACL.

Mr. Asuman, says this monetary deficit presents a substantial obstacle to adequately financing the agency's ongoing operations.
“If they comply with the law, GMet will have a lot of internally generated revenue and will most likely inform the government that "we have come of age and can take care of ourselves - buy our equipments, pay our staff, and have a reliable source of revenue."
GMet offers forecasts three times a day, as well as weather advisories and warnings whenever significant weather events are detected.

The central analysis and forecasting office serves as the hub for collecting and analyzing weather and climate data, which is then disseminated to the public.

A majority of researchers are stationed at this office to monitor shifts in weather patterns and communicate these changes to the general population.

Joe Tettey Portuphy is the deputy director in-charge of synoptic meteorology and forecasting.

“We possess a satellite receiver that updates us every 15 minutes about global events, which we can then narrow down to focus on Ghana. The meteorologists receive this information, analyze the weather occurrences, engage in discussions, and formulate the forecast”

GMet needs about 120 Automatic Weather Stations of synoptic nature to achieve nationwide coverage and deliver forecasts tailored to specific locations.

With the existing 44 manual and automatic synoptic weather stations, the agency is unable to offer forecasts that are customized to particular locations.

According to Mr. Asuman, a rainfall station should be established within every 5km radius in an ideal scenario.

“For every 5 km radius ideally, there should be a rainfall station. Imagine the size of Ghana and then calculate 5 km radius and multiple by the number of stations I need. It is in hundreds and thousands. For the WMO standard, you can have 20 km radius synoptic station. So one station can cover 20 km radius and if you don't have them, you can do 40 km radius.”

The agency also needs about 600 rain gauges and 4 radar systems to ensure complete national coverage. This comprehensive setup would enable the identification of localized storms or developing weather systems and facilitate thorough analysis and forecasting.

“I need about 600 gauges and about 4 radars to cover the entire country to be able identify localized storm or system developing and be able analyze and forecast,” Mr. Asuman said.

However, to cater to agricultural needs with specialized agromet weather station types, the organization also requires about 350 such stations.

“But for the agromet type, we need about 350. We have about 50 in the system. A proposal has been approved to get a lot more of them. Under the FSRP project, 50 have been requested. Under the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project under the ministry of communication, we have about 35 proposed there as well.”

By the end of 2023, GMet aims to acquire about 61 new automatic weather stations, in addition to the current 22 manual stations, to achieve the goal of establishing 120 weather stations nationwide.

There are intentions to transition towards employing self-recording automatic weather stations in order to enhance the timeliness and precision of data collection.

“We are getting more of the automatic weather stations. There are projects that are in a pipeline to buy us a lot more of these synoptic types of stations. Two projects that we are working on now this year,” Mr Asuman indicated.

He mentioned that as part of the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project, they are receiving 15 synoptic automatic weather stations. Additionally, through the Ministry of Agriculture's Food System Resilience Project (FSRP), they have agreed to acquire 20 more of these synoptic automatic weather stations.

This brings the total count to 35, along with an additional 26 stations, effectively increasing the density of this type of automatic weather stations

“That will give us about 61 of them but I need about 120 and so this 61 automatic by the close of the year plus the Manual of 22 that will take me to about 83. So if I need about 120 to cover the whole nation then I'm getting closer to what I'm looking for the rain gauges.”