Meteorologists: War in Ukraine makes forecasts unreliable

“For reliable predictions, we need comprehensive data”, said Clemens Simmer, head of the German Meteorological Association before the annual meeting in Leipzig, Germany.

Moreover, sanctions imposed on Russia due to its invasion imply that many channels of communication based on weather knowledge have been closed.

So far, data is still being provided by Russia and parts of Ukraine where fighting is not intense through communication channels created by the United Nations.

If we lose data from a giant area like this, it would have an important effect on the quality of projections”, Simmer said, noting that it was already difficult to communicate with Russian colleagues.

This has never been a problem during the Cold War”, he added.