New project will strengthen early warnings for floods and flash floods in Southwest Indian Ocean

The event from 2-5 July is hosted by WMO in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development/Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, the US National Weather Service, the Hydrologic Research Center and the Seychelles Meteorological Authority. 

Representatives from the National Meteorology and Hydrology Services, disaster risk management section and water resources sectors from Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles are attending. 

Experts from WMO’s Regional Specialized Meteorological Service (RSMC) for tropical cyclone monitoring and forecasting (La Réunion, France) and for Severe Weather Forecasting (Pretoria, South Africa) are also at the session to share their knowledge and experience.

The main objectives of the workshop are to:

• Initiate the implementation of the Southwest Indian Ocean Early Warning System for Flood and Flash Flood Guidance System in Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles
• Identifying initial steps for implementation and priorities for action
• Initiate the FFGS data discovery process.

The Southwest Indian Ocean project will span three years and will provide extensive training to operational hydrometeorological forecasters to generate flash flood early warning products by using state-of-the-art hydrometeorological forecasting models.

This project will enhance the capacity of NMHSs to issue effective warnings and alerts for flash floods, which are a major problem for the region. It will feed into the broader Early Warnings For All Initiative to save lives and livelihoods all over the globe.

Flash floods are among the world’s deadliest natural disasters with more than 5,000 lives lost annually. Accounting for approximately 85% of flooding cases, flash floods also have the highest mortality rate among different classes of flooding.

Flash floods differ from river floods in their short time scales and occurrence on small spatial scales, which makes flash flood forecasting a different challenge from large-river flood forecasting.

The FFGS was designed and developed for interactive use by meteorological and hydrological forecasters throughout the world to meet the challenge of flash floods, especially the lack of capacity to develop effective flash flood warnings.

Since its inception in 2009, FFGS has made remarkable progress and now covers over 40% of the global population in more than 72 countries. By the end of 2026, it will be operational in 100 countries worldwide.It also includes landslide, riverine, urban and seasonal to sub-seasonal modules, and extensive technical training programs on flash flood prediction for hydrometeorologist as well as disaster managers. So far, more than 1,000 experts have been trained in the FFGS and flash flood forecasting.  

WMO has developed FFGS in partnership with the U.S. National Weather Service, the United States Agency for International Development Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and the Hydrologic Research Center.