Head of the Central Analysis and Forecasting Office at the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet), Felicity Ahafianyo, says the Agency’s work goes far beyond simply telling Ghanaians whether it will rain or shine.
Speaking on Good Afternoon Ghana on Metro TV on Monday, December 1, 2025, she noted that many people still misunderstand the full mandate of the Agency.
“Most people think that our mandate is only to go out, watch the sky, and then come and tell them that it’s going to rain or it’s going to be sunny,” she said.
“But then we do more than that. We are mandated… to take charge of anything that has to do with the meteorological parameters in the sense of climatology or climate science.”
According to her, GMET collects and archives meteorological data nationwide, makes it available to researchers, and uses it to produce short-, medium- and long-term forecasts for the public.
Who works at GMET?
Madam Ahafianyo provided a rare look into the kind of technical expertise required inside the Agency, noting that meteorology demands a strong scientific background.
“You have to be a scientist. From the second cycle, you must read chemistry, physics, and mathematics,” she said. Even after university, forecasters need computer programming and statistics skills, as well as the ability to interpret data and communicate clearly to the public.
She added that GMET’s workforce includes engineers, IT specialists, HR officers, public weather communicators, aviation meteorologists, agro-meteorologists and observers stationed across the country.
GMET is understaffed and stations are shrinking
Despite the scope of its work, Madam Ahafianyo revealed that the Agency has fewer than 500 staff nationwide, far below what is required.
“Three years down the line, we were privileged to get quite a number to add up. So we are less than 500 staff,” she said.
She explained that Ghana used to have over 600 agro-meteorological stations, but many have ceased operations due to limited resources.
Even synoptic stations – the primary stations for daily weather observations – have dropped from 22 to 21.
Why Ghanaians often miss the right forecast
Madam Felicity Ahafianyo said one of GMET’s biggest frustrations is that many Ghanaians rely on outdated information instead of the latest forecast.
“We issue the forecast, and people don’t pick it. But then the moment they see the clouds gathering, they go for an old forecast that we have issued,” she noted.
“Then you see the public following that publication, rather than following the current trend.”
How often GMET releases forecasts
GMET updates its daily forecasts three times a day – morning, afternoon and evening – because weather conditions change rapidly.
“For a day, for the daily one, we come up three times,” she explained.
The release times are:
0 am – morning forecast for the entire day
11:00 am – afternoon update
5:00 pm – evening update
Each release updates the previous one and projects into the next time block.
She noted that weather observers across the country collect fresh data every hour, sending in temperature, wind speed, humidity, cloud cover, dew point and other parameters. Forecasters combine these with global models to produce predictions.
Weather changes – and so should public expectations
Madam Ahafianyo stressed that weather systems evolve quickly, which is why updates are necessary.
“The weather we know is never static. It keeps changing,” she said. Variations in surface pressure, humidity, wind direction and solar energy can alter conditions at any moment.
She added that GMET also issues earlier weather warnings when storms approach from neighboring countries.
Despite the challenges, she believes the Agency’s work remains critical and hopes the public will pay closer attention to the updated forecasts rather than relying on old ones.
