Global weather intelligence provider Earth Networks has announced a partnership with the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES). The partnership will enable a multi-year collaboration program to enhance RIMES’ member state National Hydro-Meteorological Services (NMHS) capacity for early warning of severe weather.

Together, the two organizations are working to improve access to reliable weather information and early warning capabilities in Africa and Asia. By contributing on-the-ground insights from its weather and lightning networks, Earth Networks is providing critical hyperlocal data to RIMES to help regional NMHS close weather observation gaps in real-time and support more accurate forecasting. These technology enhancements will result in quicker warnings to the public before and during severe weather events.

Earth Networks has years of experience operating a severe weather early warning network throughout RIMES regions that powers a complete suite of visualization, forecasting, storm identification, alerting and tracking services relied upon by government agencies and private enterprises alike. This new agreement with RIMES supports Earth Networks’ commitment to build sustainable public-private weather information services partnerships with NMHS around the globe.

Under the agreement, Earth Networks will collaborate with RIMES and its member states on technical options for commercial solutions to improve forecasting and alerting capabilities for severe weather events. In addition to providing training and development for RIMES staff, Earth Networks will offer comprehensive weather data, including real-time and historical lightning data, weather observations, forecasting, as well as live storm-tracking and alerting through Sferic Maps and Sferic Mobile. RIMES will work to integrate Earth Networks lightning data and alerting capabilities into its multi-hazard early warning platform.

Read the full announcement here.