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On 30 March 2022, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) launched the High-Impact Weather Assessment Toolkit (HIWAT) at its headquarters in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

HIWAT provides probabilistic thunderstorm forecasting guidance to forecasters and other weather-sensitive decision-makers. The toolkit includes a suite of ensemble model forecasts and provides 54-hour probabilistic forecasts for the entire Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It provides outlooks for lightning strikes, high impact winds, high rainfall rates, hail, and other weather events.

We have partnered with BMD to further customize HIWAT for Bangladesh and provided training on its use. BMD made major investments to procure a high-performance computing (HPC) system to install and run HIWAT on its computing cluster. HIWAT is very computation-intensive and requires an HPC system to operate. With HIWAT now installed on their HPC cluster, BMD will be able to simulate extreme weather events and issue more accurate operational forecasts.

BMD’s work and mandate

Bangladesh is a hotspot for high-impact weather events – intense rainfall, damaging wind and hail, frequent lightning strikes, and cyclones. Every monsoon, incessant rainfall causes continued flooding in large swathes of land inundating houses, infrastructure, and agricultural land, affecting thousands across Bangladesh. Between April and May every year, Bangladesh experiences Kal Baishakhi – localized rainfall and thunderstorm events often exceeding 100 km hours. In the past two years, cyclones Yaas and Amphan caused massive damage to coastal areas in Bangladesh. Human-induced climate change will cause the likelihood of more frequent and intense weather events into the future.

As the national mandated institution in Bangladesh, BMD issues forecasts and early warnings on all weather-related events in Bangladesh. BMD works in tandem with other government agencies – the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre at the Bangladesh Water Development Board, the Department of Disaster Management, and the Department of Agriculture Extension – to issue forecasts and warnings around inclement weather events. Forecasters at BMD rely on observational data from a country-wide network of observatories and stations, and data gleaned from meteorological satellites and weather research and forecasting models to develop the forecasts, advisories, and warnings for Bangladesh.

Collaboration on HIWAT

Since 2017, our SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative, a joint ICIMOD, NASA and USAID partnership, has been collaborating with BMD to enhance extreme weather forecasting, and flood and drought warning services for Bangladesh. We have been working closely with the NASA SERVIR Science Coordination Office, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the NASA – Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) and BMD to further customize HIWAT for Bangladesh and have organized multiple training events to enhance the capacity of BMD staff in deterministic and ensemble numerical weather forecasts.

BMD professionals also received training to help them independently operationalize and use HIWAT to simulate extreme weather hazards, issue forecasts, and effectively manage the system. BMD has been extending all the necessary inputs and support to further customize and enhance HIWAT’s data visualization capabilities for Bangladesh.

The HIWAT launch event

Basanta Raj Shrestha, our Director of Strategic Cooperation and Birendra Bajracharya, Chief of Party–SERVIR-HKH, joined Kawsar Parvin, BMD’s Deputy Director, and Md Sanaul Hoque Mondal, Deputy Director (Current Charge), Storm Warning Centre, to officially launch HIWAT for Bangladesh.

Welcoming partners and media persons to the launch event, Md Sanaul Hoque Mondal said, “HIWAT has been successfully installed at BMD’s HPC cluster after rigorous testing and demonstration by ICIMOD and NASA Science Team for over two years. Capacity building activities for BMD forecasters by NASA and ICIMOD has been integral in enabling BMD to run and operationalize HIWAT independently at BMD.”

Joining the launch remotely, Nancy Searby, NASA’s Capacity Building Program Manager for the Applied Sciences Program, thanked BMD for making HIWAT a reality and making the crucial investments to ensure that the system is sustained and locally run. She said, “Beyond the many applications of HIWAT at BMD, I am excited about the downstream use by other government agencies in Bangladesh. This will enable a whole-of-government approach and maximize HIWAT’s potential to support stronger decision-making in agriculture, water resources, and disaster management.”

Investing in adaptation interventions like HIWAT, and other early warning systems for climate hazards really demonstrate their value to lives and livelihoods and property.

Addressing the launch event virtually, Pete Epanchin, USAID’s Senior Climate Adaptation and Resilience Advisor, said, “By partnering with BMD and officially launching HIWAT, we can be optimistic by the promise of reduced or avoided human impact and suffering caused by extreme weather events.”

In a written statement read out by meteorologist Md Abdul Mannan, Md Azizur Rahman, Director, BMD, thanked ICIMOD, SERVIR, NASA, and USAID, and hoped to continue the partnership and cooperation to further improve HIWAT for Bangladesh.

Md Abdul Mannan facilitated the event and presented on BMD’s weather and climate forecast systems. Birendra Bajracharya made a presentation on HIWAT and its functional aspects.

BMD and ICIMOD officials and representatives from the Department of Disaster Management, Department of Agriculture Extension, Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization, Survey of Bangladesh and the Department of Meteorology, University of Dhaka attended the half-day event. Team members from NASA SERVIR SCO, NASA SCO and ICIMOD joined the launch virtually.

* All photographs by Utsav Maden/ICIMOD

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