Catastrophic 2018 Global Climate Lessons and the Perils of Lack of Prognostic and Synoptic Data

The global climate scenes of 2018 were characterised by two major dominant devastating Tropical Cyclones; Cyclone Florence and Cyclone Michael that left major shocks in the weather phenomena, patterns and lessons for semi-arid Savana countries such as Zimbabwe. Lack of climate data on extent, timing, intensity, return intervals and direction of storm surges severely exposed nations to unprecedented catastrophic weather. During 2018 unusual catastrophic dry weather and winds fuelled firestorms, winds and biomass burnt out of control and ravaged very large tracts of land leaving trails of damage and human fatalities. What if weather condition prognosis was substantially improved, would environmental calamities be contained and be reduced? A large array of integrated instruments provide data relevant to weather forecasting. Increasingly Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) proffer memory ecosystem changes to complement meteorological data. From sustained climate data monitoring a picture emerges of the direction of environmental conditions and ecosystems changes.