The directorate is responsible for collection and distribution of real-time weather information from all outstations in the field as well as producing daily public and aviation forecasts. Weather forecast services generates products to serve interests of different clients and among others, these include;
- Daily advisories and forecasts for Aviation.
- Meteorological Watch Office (MWO) for Uganda, keeping a watch of weather conditions over entire Ugandan airspace.
- Responsible for Pilot Briefings before take-off from Entebbe airport through preparation and issuance of routine pilot folders with weather take-off data.
- Public weather service issuing forecasts through Radios, Print media, Television, cell phone sms.
- Special tailored Mobile Weather Alert service where daily forecasts and alerts on severe weather to fisheries community on Lake Victoria sent via Mobile phone sms.
- Through the national Meteorological centre-Entebbe, the directorate is responsible for sharing weather data with the rest of the globe through the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
- Maintaining a good telecommunication system to exchange real-time weather information rapidly across the World.
The Forecasting Directorate is headed by a Director. The Director Forecasting Services reports directly to the Executive Director and DFS comprises of four major sections, namely:-
- National Meteorological Centre (NMC)
- Aeronautical Meteorology Services
- Weather Modeling and Verification Services
- Technical Services Division
The four sections are interdependent with the bulk of the functions being of operational nature. In a nutshell the directorate deals with, collection and exchange of weather data both internally and externally; weather analysis, issuing and disseminating forecasts and other weather information (such as warnings, real-time data etc) to targeted users and the general public. A brief summary of activities undertaken by various sections is given under separate headings.
