World Meteorological Day 2010, 60 years of service for your safety and well-being
World Meteorological Day 2010, 60 years of service for your safety and well-being
"Our growing ability to predict the weather and climate saved millions of lives,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “In the coming decades, WMO’s observations, forecasts and services will be a critical tool in ensuring food security, adapting to climate change, and contribute to sustainable development.” Around the clock, WMO facilitates provision and exchange of near-real-time standardized information from 189 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and 35 Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres across the globe. Data is collected by about 10 000 land stations, 3 000 aircraft, 1 000 upper-air stations, more than 1 000 ships, 16 operational meteorological and environmental satellites and about 50 research satellites. The WMO Integrated Global Observing System connects these observational networks using the WMO Information System for data exchange, management and processing.

According to figures from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, between 1980 to 2007, on a global scale, 7558 weather-, water- and climate-related hazards accounted for 90% of the total number of disasters, 72% of the total casualties (1.3 million people), and 78% of total economic loss (12 trillion USD).

Major contributions to society evolved from marked improvement in weather forecasting, which in 1950 allowed only for 24 to 36- hour predictions of comparable quality to what we have today for seven-day forecasts. This would not have been possible without the international coordinating role played by WMO in observations, research, analysis and modeling, which also led to the development of longer-range predictions, now extending several seasons ahead.

Sixty years ago, WMO was founded to facilitate international cooperation in the field of weather, climate, water and related sciences. WMD commemorates the entry into force in 1950 of the WMO Convention creating an inter-governmental organization, as a successor to the non-governmental International Meteorological Organization (IMO) established in 1873. In 1951, WMO became a Specialized Agency of the United Nations.

Major achievements in the past decades have been timely alerts issued with respect to the thinning of the protective stratospheric ozone layer and to the potential consequences of the anthropogenic climate change. The momentum generated set in motion processes that resulted in the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and its Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987); the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol (1997) that sets targets for reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases; and the setting up in 1988 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in partnership with UNEP. WMO jointly with the International Council for Science (ICSU) launched the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year and the International Polar Year 2007-2008, which is still producing exceptional scientific results.

Through successive World Climate Conferences, WMO has moved from observations and research to better understand the climate challenges to providing specific sector-related services to help decision-makers. The World Climate Conference-3, in 2009, decided to establish a Global Framework for Climate Services for providing sector-specific climate services tailored to national, regional and global needs. Work on developing that Framework has started already and a report is expected by early 2011.