Earth Networks and NiMet Announce Weather Services Partnership

Aug 18, 2021

Press Releases

A new nationwide early warning network with real-time lightning detection, severe storm nowcasting, and alerting will be deployed

Germantown, MD – August 18, 2021 — Earth Networks, a global provider of weather intelligence, announced today it has formed a partnership with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet). The program includes a five-year collaboration to build the Nigeria Total Lightning and Mesoscale AWS Network (NTLMAN) for early warning of severe weather. The partnership was commemorated in a live virtual signing ceremony from Abuja and Germantown, Maryland on August 18, 2021. You can view the ceremony recording below:

Under the agreement, Earth Networks and NiMet will deploy and operate a comprehensive early warning lightning detection network in Nigeria (NTLMAN) and jointly co-market new sources of weather and lightning data to public and private industries in Nigeria. Precision weather stations and lightning sensors will be hosted at NiMet locations and maintained by NiMet staff. In addition to the network equipment, Earth Networks will also provide training and development for NiMet staff regarding use of comprehensive weather data, including real-time and historical lightning data, weather observations, sensor forecasts, as well as live storm-tracking and alerting.

This new agreement with NiMet supports Earth Networks’ commitment to build sustainable public-private weather information services partnerships with countries around the globe. Now, government agencies and private enterprises in Nigeria alike will have access to a complete suite of visualization, forecasting, storm identification, alerting and tracking services, developed and offered jointly by NiMet and Earth Networks. The realization of this cooperation means any industry affected by weather in Nigeria, such as aviation, oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, and many more, can now take advantage of the most technologically advanced severe weather alerts and data to promote safety and ease operational challenges caused by weather.

“We’ve been working in more than 25 countries in Africa since 2013 to save lives and protect property with high-resolution weather and lightning data,” said Jim Anderson, Vice President, Global Sales at Advanced Environmental Monitoring, Earth Networks’ parent company. “We are excited to partner with NiMet to help accelerate the expansion of their high impact weather forecasting capacity and bring new weather warning services to enterprise customers in Nigeria.”

With this collaboration, NiMet and organizations and companies in Nigeria will now have access to an advanced suite of weather alerting and tracking tools from Earth Networks, including:

Total Lightning Detection Network

The Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) is the most advanced lightning network in the world. Its ability to comprehensively monitor both in-cloud, and cloud-to-ground lightning enables the creation of faster severe weather alerts, lightning-derived proxy-radar alternatives and real-time storm visualization. In Africa, Earth Networks already provides real-time lightning data and weather information to ASECNA for air traffic management and to the national hydrometeorological services of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Uganda, Guinea, Mozambique, and Madagascar among others.

Real-time Weather Visualization and Alerting with Sferic Maps and Sferic Mobile

Sferic Maps and its companion app Sferic Mobile provide forecasters, disaster management and emergency managers with web-based access to the industry’s best weather detection technologies. Only Sferic Maps shows live proxy-radar together with lightning flashes detected by the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network.

Faster Severe Weather Notifications with Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts

Exclusive to Earth Networks, Dangerous Thunderstorm Alerts (DTA) provide advanced notification of the potential for severe weather, including lightning strikes, heavy rain, hail, strong winds and increased threat of tornadic activity.

High rates of in-cloud lightning serve as early indicators of the potential for severe weather activity. By tracking increased in-cloud lightning rates and issuing these alerts, Earth Networks can give advanced notice of severe weather potential by up to 45 minutes.

Pinpoint Forecasts with ENcast

Short-range point forecasts powered by ENcast enable highly targeted weather planning for specific locations. Infusing localized, real-time weather information into numerical weather prediction improves the accuracy of short-term forecasts, as does utilizing the highest-resolution models, eliminating model bias, and updating the forecast frequently with the latest observations. ENcast solves the biggest industry forecast problems and sets a new standard for accurate hourly weather forecasts from 0 to 15 days.

A Unique Alternative to Radar: PulseRad

While weather radar has proven an invaluable tool in weather forecasting, alerting and research, many areas of the world lack the financial resources and technical expertise to deploy, operate and maintain a radar solution.

PulseRad—the first practical proxy-radar alternative capable of coverage on a national and continental scale—visually resembles radar, is designed to provide similar benefits as radar at a lower cost, updates faster than radar, and can be accessed directly in Earth Networks’ Sferic Maps weather visualization dashboard.

While traditional radar is limited in coverage to less than 300 miles from land-based radar sites, PulseRad is also able to detect storms over oceans, near islands and within mountainous regions, providing crucial information not captured by traditional radar.

About Earth Networks

Earth Networks, a member of the Advanced Environmental Monitoring family of innovators, has developed partnerships in many countries over the past several years to bring weather observation, forecasting and alerting technologies that are both low-cost and easy to deploy and maintain. The company is committed to enabling the best weather and lightning observation networks, visualization tools and early warning alerting technologies to the world. Schools, airports, sports teams, utilities, and government agencies rely on our early warning solutions to safeguard lives, prepare for weather events and optimize operations. Companies across all industries use our weather data to automate decisions regarding risk management, business continuity, and asset protection.