Terms & data policy

Mandate, what the figures are, and where the data comes from.

Mandate & advisory status

The Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services (DCCMS), a department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change, is the government body responsible for weather observation, forecasting and the issue of official warnings in Malawi.

The risk levels, maps and early-action suggestions on this platform are computed automatically from the DCCMS WRF model against institutional thresholds. They are decision support, not an official warning. Emergency declarations remain with the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) and the Office of the President and Cabinet.

Withheld figures

Some disaggregated demographic figures are withheld where the underlying count is small enough that publishing it could identify individuals. These appear as a marked “suppressed” state rather than a number. This is a privacy safeguard, not a data fault.

Data & attribution

DCCMS Malawi

WRF 4 km forecast model; institutional hazard thresholds and the warning matrix.

National Statistical Office (NSO)

Administrative boundaries and codes; population and housing census baseline.

Department of Water Resources (DWR)

River-gauge stage records. Not integrated: there is no live DWR feed, so no gauge data appears anywhere on this platform and the flood view shows rainfall-driven risk only.

Malawi Social Registry (UBR) · NLGFC

Household socio-economic registry, national extract 2.0. Only aggregates appear on this platform: no name, national identity number, coordinate or individual record is held here or served by it. Counts below five at any boundary are suppressed. Figures describe registered households, not all households in an area, and must not be read as area-wide prevalence.

WorldPop

Global 2 (R2025A) 1 km UN-adjusted gridded population: district / EPA / TA resident totals and the age split. Current-year figures are projections.

Last revised August 2026 · Frequently asked questions