Observations of enhanced rainfall variability in Kenya, East Africa.

Understanding local patterns of rainfall variability is of great concern in East Africa, where agricultural productivity is dominantly rainfall dependent. However, East African rainfall climatology is influenced by numerous drivers operating at multiple scales, and local patterns of variability are not adequately understood. Here, we show evidence of substantial variability of local rainfall patterns between 1981 and 2021 at the national and county level in Kenya, East Africa.

Verification of operational numerical weather prediction model forecasts of precipitation using satellite rainfall estimates over Africa.

Rainfall is an important variable to be able to monitor and forecast across Africa, due to its impact on agriculture, food security, climate-related diseases and public health. Numerical weather models (NWMs) are an important component of this work, due to their complete spatial coverage, high resolution and ability to forecast into the future. In this study, the spatio-temporal skill of short-term forecasts of rainfall across Africa from 2016 through 2018 is evaluated.

Pan-African evolution of within- and between-country COVID-19 dynamics.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is heterogeneous throughout Africa and threatening millions of lives. Surveillance and short-term modeling forecasts are critical to provide timely information for decisions on control strategies. We created a strategy that helps predict the country-level case occurrences based on cases within or external to a country throughout the entire African continent, parameterized by socioeconomic and geoeconomic variations and the lagged effects of social policy and meteorological history.

Tracking and predicting the African COVID-19 pandemic.

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is heterogeneous throughout Africa and threatening millions of lives. Surveillance and short-term modeling forecasts are critical to provide timely information for decisions on control strategies. We use a model that explains the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic over time in the entire African continent, parameterized by socioeconomic and geoeconomic variations and the lagged effects of social policy and meteorological history.

Erratum: A new, long-term daily satellite-based rainfall dataset for operational monitoring in Africa.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.

A new, long-term daily satellite-based rainfall dataset for operational monitoring in Africa.

Rainfall information is essential for many applications in developing countries, and yet, continually updated information at fine temporal and spatial scales is lacking. In Africa, rainfall monitoring is particularly important given the close relationship between climate and livelihoods. To address this information gap, this paper describes two versions (v2.