Seychelles Hosts Regional SWIOFFGS Refresher Training
Representatives from countries across the Southwest Indian Ocean region gathered in Seychelles from 17 to 19 August 2026 for a refresher training on the Southwest Indian Ocean Flash Flood Guidance System.
The three-day Southwest Indian Ocean Flash Flood Guidance System (SWIOFFGS) Refresher Training brought together representatives of participating Southwest Indian Ocean countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), regional trainers from the South Africa Weather Service (SAWS), technical experts and staff of the Seychelles Meteorological Authority (SMA). The refresher training builds from previous SWIOFFGS training sessions conducted by the Hydrologic Research Center (HRC) from the United States in 2024 and 2025.
Organised in Seychelles with the support of WMO, the training provided participants with an opportunity to consolidate and update their operational knowledge of SWIOFFGS, review relevant procedures and practices, and exchange experiences in flash-flood monitoring, forecasting and early-warning services.
The Flash Flood Guidance System is an important operational tool for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services across the region. It combines rainfall information with hydrological and soil-moisture data to help forecasters assess whether current or expected rainfall could lead to flash flooding. This capability is particularly important in the Southwest Indian Ocean, where intense rainfall can develop rapidly and affect small catchments within a short period. By providing guidance on the potential response of the ground and catchments to rainfall, the system supports more informed and timely warning decisions. FFGS provides forecasters with additional and new approaches to analysing and interpreting meteorological data and information and therefore complements other systems used to improve flash-flood forecasting.
With FFGS, it does not mean that the forecast can never be wrong. No forecasting system in the world can guarantee 100% accuracy. However, FFGS significantly reduces the likelihood of forecasting errors and provides more timely, reliable, and impact-based forecasting capabilities to support decision-making and early action.
For Seychelles, SWIOFFGS is particularly valuable due to the country’s geographical characteristics and vulnerability to intense rainfall events. The steep terrain of the granitic islands, together with periods of heavy rainfall and rapid surface runoff, can result in rapidly changing water conditions, particularly in low-lying and developed areas. The system therefore provides useful guidance to forecasters in assessing rainfall conditions and supporting timely early-warning services.
A key element of the system is its ability to provide information on soil moisture conditions. Rainfall over relatively dry ground may be partially absorbed, while wetter ground conditions can result in increased surface runoff. This information helps forecasters better understand how catchments may respond to rainfall and supports the assessment of hydrological conditions for operational forecasting and early-warning services.
The refresher training further strengthened cooperation among participating countries by allowing forecasters, technical personnel and trainers to share operational experiences, discuss common challenges and identify opportunities for improving the use of flash-flood guidance products.
SMA reaffirmed that continued investment in forecasting systems, technical capacity and regional collaboration is essential to providing timely and reliable warnings and protecting lives, livelihoods and infrastructure from flash floods and landslides.