FASTA – Bringing near real-time storm information to Africa to save lives and protect livelihoods

Our vision is to improve near-real-time storm information across Africa in the next ten years.

Fisherman Alex

What is FASTA?

FASTA brings near real-time storm information to East Africa. 

Our app and Application Programming Interface (API) provide instant access to current and approaching storm activity in your region.

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Collaborate

We work in partnership with national and international weather service providers across Africa.

Support Us

Help us bring short-term storm forecasting to Africa and invest in African weather services.

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Nowcasting is the future of weather prediction, especially in the tropics. The tropics have more and more unpredictability in the weather patterns, especially rainfall. The area is affected by many systems, that sometimes longer range forecasting does not give a satisfactory confidence level. In an area where more and more people are becoming aware of the effects of climate change in their weather patterns, traditional short, medium or long range forecasts are increasingly becoming unreliable. Nowcasting can be used, not as a replacement of these traditional methods but as a complementary method to enrich the predictability of weather in the next one to six hours.
Nowcasting is a game-changer and should be integrated into the way we forecast the weather. It is useful for disaster management and the community in general.
Carey A. Owiti,
Hydrologist,
Kenya Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation.
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Latest News

A Storm short-range weather models didn’t see

How a storm over Lake Victoria could have been predicted using nowcasting – and why specialised training for weather forecasters in Kenya is so essential.

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Weather nowcasting serves Kenyan farmers

Near-term forecasts provide farmers and fishers with information to better time their work in the face of climate risks

Leonard Maritim checks for storm activity using an innovative phone app before planting maize on his farm in western Kenya

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The FASTA weather Nowcasting App is now live for Kenya

Today’s launch is in partnership with the Kenya Meteorological Department, offering real-time maps of thunderstorms to people with smartphones across the country.  

The app can now be downloaded from the Google Play Store.  

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An ethical weather service for Africa

Can the financial benefits of international research stay in the countries that need it most?

How do you turn UK-funded scientific research into a commercial product for use in Africa, while ensuring the profits benefit that continent and not the UK?

Scorched tea in Mulanje (October 2019). Africa’s cocoa and tea industries could benefit from now-casting insights whilst helping to support the economy. Credit: WeatherChasers.
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