Weather Climate and Water in the Information Age

Weather Climate and Water in the Information Age

Tuesday is World Meteorological Day, a day set aside by meteorologists around the world to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 23 March 1950. This year's theme is "Weather, Climate and Water in the Information Age".

The Secretary-General of WMO, Mr. Michel Jarraud, said in a publication marking this occasion that "floods continue to be one of the most damaging of natural disasters. Major boons for the Information Age have been the media and Internet, which have contributed significantly to enhancing accessibility and awareness about the value of weather and climate information. It is WMO's ambition to have the number of deaths due to natural disasters of meteorological, hydrological and climatic origin halved over the next 15 years".

MetService uses all available media including the Internet and email to get weather warnings out as quickly as possible. The MetService web site at www.metservice.co.nz allows anyone with Internet or email access to be fully advised with up-to-date weather warnings for heavy rain, or severe wind or snow.

MetService is celebrating World Meteorological Day this week by inviting retired meteorologists along to tour the newly refurbished forecast centre in Wellington and to view advances in technology used in weather forecasting and presentation such as the Weatherscape XT graphics package recently bought by the BBC.

Copies of a special WMO publication issued to mark World Meteorological Day, including a full sized poster, are freely available from the MetService Weather Ambassador, Bob McDavitt at mcdavitt@metservice.com .

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