DERTU, Kenya — After three months of unusually heavy rainfall in late 2006, an outbreak of Rift Valley fever in Kenya left 118 people and hundreds of cattle dead. Kenya’s Meteorological Department predicted the outbreak, but health officials failed to act on the warning until it was too late.

This month Google.org, the technology company’s philanthropic arm, is convening African health, weather, insect and climate experts in Nairobi to identify research gaps and opportunities for collaboration. In many countries, meteorological systems set up in colonial times have deteriorated, and the scant data gathered never reaches the health officials who could use it in an early warning system.

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