Met Dept launches mobile app to update Kenyans on incoming storms

The Kenya Meteorological Department has launched a new mobile application to give near-real-time information on storms across the country.

Dubbed ‘FASTA’, an acronym for Forecasting African Storms Application, the platform was announced on Tuesday and is a basic app that gives heavy rainfall warning of a location for up to the next two hours.

One can also search for a location in Kenya to fetch rainfall information, although the app does not give temperature forecasts or information about other meteorological phenomena.

The FASTA app is only available on Google Play Store for Android users. It does not require sign-up and all one needs after downloading it is to ensure the location setting is turned on for their device.

On the Play Store, the app is labelled as still under development and users can give feedback to optimize it. 

Some new users on Tuesday reported getting error messages when they tried to fetch the rainfall forecast for their location.

The Met Department gives weather forecasts at the beginning of every week, and the app comes at a time when Kenya is experiencing the long rain season which usually begins mid-March.

The meteorological agency has indicated that rains are expected to go on until June.

Hundreds of families have so far been affected by floods in Nairobi, Baringo, Mwea, Tana River and Kirinyaga since the onset of the long rain season.