Climate Services for the Humanitarian Community

Simon J. Masonsimon@iri.columbia.edu

International Research Institute for Climate and SocietyThe Earth Institute of Columbia University

First Meeting of the Task Team on Meteorological Services for Improved Humanitarian Planning and Response

Geneva, Switzerland, 31 August – 02 September, 2010

Climate Information

• Climate information is like a hospital gown:

one size fits nobody.

• Forecasts need to be tailored.

Is 50 mm over 6 days a lot of rain?

Unclear Weather Information

Will there be flooding in Mbabane in the next few days?

1. Lost in translation: forecasts made by forecasters for forecasters.

2. Service provision of forecasts is not the same as need for information on impacts.

3. Difficult to make decisions even when forecast is clear.

4. Probabilities are not the problem; the forecast is just not relevant. Don’t dumb-down the forecast; forecast something interesting.

Making sense of climate information

Tailoring requires partnerships

• Tailoring requires climate service.

IRI – IFRC Partnership

• Map Room• Help Desk• Full-time staff desk• Internship Program and field presence for decision support

IRI – IFRC Map Room:http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/.IFRC/.Forecasts/

IRI – IFRC Help Desk

What is happening to El Niño?Why should I worry about El Niño?Why should I worry about this El Niño?What should I do about it?

Internship Program and Field Presence

Identifying needs and opportunitiesBridging communitiesCapacity buildingDecision support

Conclusions

Climate information should attempt to answer questions that users ask, not that climatologists ask.

The ability to tailor forecast information to answer users’ questions as closely as possible, provides the basis of any climate service, not the data per se.

The development of effective climate services requires addressing all the bottlenecks not just improving the functioning of the climate information providers.