World Meteorological Organization

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World Meteorological Organization

World Meteorological Organization (WMO), specialized agency of the United Nations; established in 1950 with headquarters at Geneva, it became affiliated with the United Nations a year later. It replaced the International Meteorological Organization, which was established in 1873. WMO aims at promoting international cooperation between the world's meteorological stations, standardizing meteorological observations, encouraging research and training, extending the use of meteorological findings to different fields, and helping to protect life and property from weather-, climate-, and water-related disasters. Satellites, used to collect meteorological data and in communications, have made possible the rapid exchange of observations for forecasting in the WMO-sponsored World Weather Watch. WMO operates through the World Meteorological Congress (which meets every four years with delegates from its entire membership), an executive committee, eight technical commissions, a secretariat, and six regional meteorological associations in Africa, Asia, South America, North and Central America, the SW Pacific, and Europe. It has 188 members.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

World Meteorological Organization

(WMO), an association with the goal of assisting international cooperation in the development of meteorological observations and research and in the coordination of the activities of national meteorological and hydrometeorological services. It was founded by the United Nations in 1947.

Before the World Meteorological Organization was created, its functions were fulfilled by the International Meteorological Organization, founded in 1871. On June 1, 1970, 122 governments were members of WMO. The highest organ of WMO is the World Meteorological Congress, which convenes once every four years. The Executive Committee consists of 24 directors of national services and meets not less than once a year. Six regional associations coordinate the activities of services in large geographical regions (Africa, Asia, South America, North and Central America, Southwest Pacific Ocean, and Europe). Eight technical commissions were created to investigate special technical questions connected with problems of carrying out and standardizing meteorological observations, exchanging meteorological information forecasting weather, and meteorological research and applied meteorology. The permanent organ of WMO is the Secretariat, which is located in Geneva, Switzerland.

I. V. KRAVCHENKO

References in periodicals archive ?

* CDD10[degrees]C (CDD50[degrees]F): The population-informed value of 1736 CDD10[degrees]C (3125 CDD50[degrees]F) was 100 CDD10[degrees]C (200 CDD50[degrees]F) higher (i.e., warmer) than the simple average value of 1614 CDD10[degrees]C (2905 CDD50[degrees]F) for the WMO sites.

2014 update to climatic data for energy standards criteria development: Part 1--CDD and HDD baseline values

A significant number of site visits to the WMO Extremes Archive originated from other social media sites (Fig.

Geographic and virtual dissemination of an international climatic announcement

But the WMO said: "Wind patterns and ocean currents tend to isolate Antarctica from global weather patterns, keeping it cold."

2013 is Seventh Hottest Year on Record, Temps Continue to Rise

The WMO report comes on top of the evidence presented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report on global warming issued in October, which sounded the alarm on the need to reach zero net emissions of CO2 by mid-century to keep temperature increases to below 1.5degC.

Greenhouse gas levels reach record high

With 2015 on track to surpassing the previous record set in 2014, temperatures to the end of October this year were 0.73 degrees Celsius above the 1961 to 1990 average, WMO indicated.

2011 to 2015 reaches warmest five-year period on record: WMO

(There were no World Meteorological Organization (WMO) sites in the United States for CZs 0A, 0B, and 1B.

2014 update to climatic data for energy standards criteria development: Part 2--representative weather files

"For water resources, agriculture, and energy, the old averages no longer reflect the current realities," Omar Baddour, the chief of data management at the WMO commission, told Reuters in Oslo, Norway.

UN Says Global Warming Requires Rethink of 'Normal' Weather

WMO said areas in Asia, Europe, United States, and Pacific are increasingly feeling the impacts of extreme weather such as droughts, heat waves, floods and tropical cyclones that are consistent with human-induced climate change.

UN: 'Yolanda' partly human-induced

Preliminary surveys indicate that the amount of ozone lost and the size of the ozone hole in Antarctica this year could be the worst ever, a spokesman for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned Tuesday.

Ozone decrease could be worst ever, U.N. agency official

A massive 62.3 foot wave in the North Atlantic measured by a buoy just broke a world record as the largest ever recorded, the (http://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/19-meter-wave-sets-new-record-highest-significant-wave-height-measured-buoy) World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced Tuesday.

Enormous Wave in the North Atlantic Breaks Record

KUWAIT, March 22 (KUNA) -- Up to 191 member states of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), including Kuwait, celebrate the UN Meteorological Day falling on March 23, under theme, climate knowledge for climate action.