The perception and usage of weather forecast information by residents of ACP estates and farmers in the Pokuase community of the Ga West municipality of Ghana

Abstract

The study was undertaken with the purpose of finding out if people paid attention to weather forecast segment of television news and whether those who did so could interpret the information including temperature, rainfall, humidity and cloud cover figures provided in it. It was also to find out what other information people wanted in weather forecasts. Questionnaires were administered to 240 people including 120 farmers in the Pokuase area of the Ga West district of the Greater Accra Region and 120 residents of Africa Concrete Products (ACP) estates in Pokuase. Results showed that except for less than one-in-ten (6.7%), all respondents had watched TV weather forecast. Out of the number less than half (43.8%) paid attention to it while a similar proportion (42.5%) paid attention to it sometimes. For interpretation of forecast figures, temperature was those respondents understood the most. In all, 70.1% of the people who said they understood the temperature figures also had tertiary education, only seven people (8.0%) of those that had the first cycle education understood confirming the hypothesis that the level of education of the viewer was likely to influence viewers’ understanding of temperature figure