In 2019, The Washington Post covered a story about a “relatively inexpensive” weather station developed by the Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO)—commenting that it was a sign of hope in solving Africa’s climate data poverty in the future. This weather station cost $2000 at the time of reporting. In 2024, an automatic 3D printed weather station from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) team called 3D PAW costs only around $375-475 including operational costs (through a solar power/battery system). This is a massive advancement. A major obstacle in building a reliable early warning system for the African continent has been outsmarted.

Climate Data Poverty in Africa

Weather Stations do much more than just inform whether an umbrella will be necessary today. It is often overlooked that they make up the integral forecasting infrastructure that saves countless lives, prevents massive economic damages, and protects the livelihoods of the most vulnerable demographic—by providing early warnings of extreme weather events. The availability of early warning systems allows vulnerable people to have enough time to evacuate and better prepare for emergency relief, lowering the number of casualties and deaths.

Advancements in weather forecasting in the last 50 years have contributed to the massive decrease in the number of deaths that extreme weather globally causes. However, statistics at a global scale hide within it the fact that flood-induced deaths were four times more occurrent in Africa per flood for the last 20 years; the fact that 99% of deaths caused by droughts occurred in Africa from 2006 to 2015.

Weather Stations in Africa

Although this indeed is a problem with a variety of causes, the attention of global health agencies, researchers and foreign aid projects synchronously focus on establishing early warning systems in the African continent in response (The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the Biden Administration have all addressed this issue publicly in 2023). The unnerving fact is that the African continent immensely lacks land-based weather observation network coverage and is currently losing existing facilities.

According to Climate Links, 3,300 ground-based weather stations covered the African continent in 1981, but in 2023 only 800 remain functional. This is mainly due to a lack of maintenance and the high cost of those operations. The WMO reports that only 37 Radar stations cover the African continent of 1.2 billion people while 636 stations cover Europe and the United States with 1.1 billion people. Simply having an early warning 24 hours before an extreme weather event can lower damages by 30%

The first part of the answer is that weather stations are incredibly expensive tools and governmental funding is insufficient in many parts of Africa. According to the Kenyan Meteorological Department, each automatic weather station cost them $54,000, The Washington Post reports. The second part of the answer is the fact that the maintenance cost of these weather stations is also high, adding to the height of the financial obstacle. Maintenance costs include manpower for regular maintenance (cleaning the sensors), the cost of operational power, and the cost of replacing broken parts, according to Climate Links. The fact is, constructing a rich network of weather stations and maintaining it in a continent as large as Africa is expensive—especially challenging for a region facing the highest level of poverty globally.

The Good News: 3D Printed Weather Stations

3D Printed Automatic Weather Stations (PAW) is a collection of 3D printable blueprints, instruction manuals and software that experts can use to locally build a fully functioning weather station using minimal resources in even the most distant parts of the globe. Despite its astronomically cheaper construction cost– around $300-500 USD–the system can impressively measure seven meteorological indicators simultaneously at 15-minute intervals: “pressure, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation and visible/infrared/UV light.” Building the system can take just a week, showcasing its potential for reproduction at an extremely fast pace.

3D PAW has grabbed the attention of the African early warning system space. In late March 2023, this new technological solution received a $10 million commitment as part of the expansion of the FEWS NET network from the Biden administration to establish a strong weather station network in the African continent, according to The White House. 3D PAWs have started to be deployed in Kenya and have currently installed 26 working weather stations at the time of reporting.

Now, the rigidity of the 3D-printed weather stations needs examination and the problem of maintaining a larger network of 3D PAWS is still something that needs a solution. However, it is undeniable that the cost-of-production problem now has an attractive solution. It is an exciting time.

The Conclusion

Working, reproducible and affordable, 3D printed weather stations are just one piece of the puzzle, but also a part of a new wave of innovations—such as AI analysis models—transform the weather forecasting game to be more affordable. The problem is still far from being solved, however, solutions are being proposed and governments and organizations globally are attentive and working together to solve the problem. The early warning issue in Africa is at a dynamic state – it is exciting to anticipate what the future may hold.

– Siwon Kim

Siwon is based in Boston, MA, USA and focuses on Good News and Technology for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr