Institute for Meteorological Training and Research

The Institute for Meteorological Training and Research Regional Training Center is a major Branch of the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) of the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources (MEMR).

It is located approximately eight kilometers, west of Nairobi City Centre along Ngong Road at Dagoretti Corner, within the premises of KMD Headquarters. Public transport is sufficiently catered for through a variety of commuter buses and mini-buses.

The WMO RMTC-Nairobi, generally referred to as the Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR), has two components:-

• The Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR) located on the grounds of the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD)
  
• The University of Nairobi, College of Biological and Physical Sciences, Department of Meteorology located at Chiromo Campus.

The two components work very closely together, especially in the coordination of international training programmes for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) members.

The Permanent Representative (PR) of Kenya with WMO heads all the international matters concerning this collaboration. The PR of Kenya with WMO is recognized channel of communication between WMO Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland and Kenya on matters pertaining to Meteorology, including application, education and training, research and development.

Our Vision

To train manpower at all levels for sustainable development while maintaining excellent standards in Education, Training and Research in the fields of Meteorology, Climate and Water.

Our Mission

To become the a world class scientific institution that provides Education, Training and Research in Meteorological, Hydrological and related fields in the Region.

Events

In 1965, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) established a panel of experts on education and training chaired by distinguished meteorological researchers and educators. The mandate of this panel is to prepare a comprehensive guide containing syllabi for both basic and specialized fields of meteorological training. Starting 1969, the panel has released a series of vitally important training publications to assist the teaching staff of WMO Regional Training Centres (RTCs) while respecting the prerogative of individual countries to set their own detailed standards and syllabi

The panel recognised that the impacts of economic globalization on the operation of NMSs, coupled with the greatly increased focus on natural disaster reduction requires an interdisciplinary approach, especially on the overall goals of sustainability. This approach calls for a diversified personnel with greater flexibility for development across the diverse areas of responsibility of NMSs in the 21st century. Training has consequently had to diversify expertise through the development of new programmes and the revision of existing training programmes.

The panel also foresaw the need for more focused professional training and user oriented NMS's. In this respect, the panel proposed a new classification (nomenclature) system of meteorological and hydrological personnel and issued new guidelines for the training of these personnel. This involved transition to a simplified two-tier classification system composed of Meteorologists/Hydrologists and Technicians. The Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR) recognizes the important advances in meteorology, as an applied physical science, resulting from an improved understanding of the coupled atmosphere-ocean-land system, improved prediction techniques and the dynamics of information and communication technology (ICT).

IMTR like other RTCs, has embarked on a process to review training curricula for various courses in line with the WMO guidelines and taking into account global and national goals. Consequently, IMTR has already reviewed and adapted the two-tier system of training for meteorological personnel. IMTR has held several Curriculum Development/Review retreats, out of which several curricula have been either developed or reviewed. Five of these have already been published, amongst them:

• Advanced Meteorological Technicians Course (AMTC)
• Middle level Meteorological Technicians Course (MMTC)
• Disaster Management Course (DMC)
• Certificate in Advanced Integrated Water Resources Management Course (IWRM)
• Diploma in Computer Studies (DCS)

The first two programmes respectively replaced the old WMO Class IV/III and WMO class II courses. Seven programmes are undergoing a peer-review process and will be published immediately after this process is completed. These are:

• Environmental Management and Assessment (MEM)
• Course in Applied Climatology (CAC)
• Table Driven Code Formats (TDCF)
• Artillery Meteorology Course? (AMC)
• Course in Applied Agricultural Meteorology (CAAM)
• Specialised Course in Aviation Meteorology (SCAM)
• Climate Change and Sustainable Development (CCSD).

Why study at Institute for Meteorological Training and Research

The Research Division at the Kenya Meteorological Department is charged with the responsibility of coordination research activities in the Department and the public Universities and also work closely with the National Research Institutes. The Division disseminates research findings through organizations of international conferences, workshops and seminars which are held fairly frequently. The Division takes the lead in developing projects in priority areas designed to advance sustainable human development in Kenya. Key priority areas of research are in the fields of weather prediction, climate variability and change and in applied meteorology.

For the future, it is the intention of the Kenya Meteorological Department and the Institute for Meteorological Training and Research in particular; to create an effective research infrastructure which would enable meteorologists and other allied professionals to focus on national meteorological research needs based on relevant programmes with the potential for generating appropriate technologies for development.

Facilities

The Kenya Meteorological Department maintains a large data bank for all meteorological parameters, with records going back some 100 years. Data processing facilities including up-to-date processing software is available for use by researchers. The Division maintain data bases such as ISIS for research work completed by various scientists from different institutions in the country such as drought, climate change etc.

Seminars and special events

Seminars on topical subjects are organized weekly - every Thursday afternoon. Most of these are given by scientists from the Department. Visitors from outside the country are also regularly scheduled to give special seminars of interest to the local scientists. The Kenya Meteorological Society and the Meteorological Department are now regularly organizing joint National Workshops and international conferences. Future announcements for these events will be available in our web-site.

Institute for Meteorological Training and Research - History

The Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR) is a branch of the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) under the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources (MEMR) charged with the responsibility of training personnel in meteorology, hydrology and related geo-sciences in the country and the Anglophone countries in Africa.

The Institute was established in 1964. A year later, 1965 it was upgraded to the status of the World Meteorological Organization Regional Training Centre (WMO-RTC) for the Anglophone Africa.

There are only 23 such training centres in the world including eight in Africa.

IMTR RMTC is regarded as a ?Centre of Excellence? specialized in training meteorology, hydrology, applied meteorology and related geosciences.