Early Warning Systems can be fundamental tools for human security in an era of increasing weather hazards, but we are not there yet. Their uptake is still limited and there is a need to improve their technical capacities and social relevance. This is what motivated our team of 19 researchers and practitioners from 14 institutions to come together and reflect on areas of opportunity to make Early Warning Systems more relevant and useful.

Led by Lizzie Kendon (UK Met Office), we compiled evidence from diverse projects working to improve EWS across different geographical and institutional settings in southern Africa. As a product of this collaboration, we recently published the paper Opportunities for increasing resilience to changing severe weather in southern Africa: “Early Action and Enhanced Adaptive Capacity for All” in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

The paper presents and discusses six strategies that, based on our combined expertise as natural and social scientists, could work to strengthen the implementation of EWS: (a) understanding risks of unprecedented events; (b) stress-testing of EWS; (c) equipping hydrometeorological services; (d) community participation toward vulnerability-focused EWS; (e) integrating local and scientific knowledge; and (f) strengthening coordination across agencies. ACACIA’s work was relevant to nurture our reflections across the six recommendations. Our experience working closely with governance actors and local communities provides valuable examples of how EWS can be strengthened in other cases.

I hope that you find this paper both enjoyable and useful. It is the product of a collective effort to better understand how to build resilience to severe weather.