Climate knowledge for climate action |
[number or issue] 
Published by: WMO ; 2015
Format: Digital (Free), Hard copy
Vol. 64(1) - 2015 - Climate knowledge for climate action
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Language(s): English
Format: Digital (Free), Hard copy
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Building Climate Resilience through Disaster Risk Reduction
Natural hazards involving weather, climate and water are a major source of death, injury and physical destruction. Over the past decade (2005-2014), 3 253 hydrometeorological hazards were reported around the world, resulting in 283 0351 deaths and economic losses amounting to US$ 983 million.
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Interview: Qing-Cun Zeng
Qing-Cun Zeng, a famous academic meteorologist, is a pioneer of numerical weather prediction, dynamic climate prediction and remote sensing theory for meteorological satellites. His semi-implicit (1961) and quadratic (1981) schemes as well as his inversion variation method (1974) are still widely applied to theoretical and practical studies in meteorology and geophysical fluid dynamics. Through his active involvement in the study of global climate and environmental change, he has contributed to advancements in the study of meteorological hazards and related disaster risk reduction. He has rece ...
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The Weather: What’s the Outlook?
New sources of atmospheric observations, faster supercomputers and advances in science together revolutionized weather forecasting in the latter part of the 20th century. On the global scale, we can today predict up to five days ahead as accurately as we could do for three days 20 years ago. This means society has much more advance warning of weather hazards than before, permitting people to prepare and, thereby, limit the loss of lives and property. Expectations are high for even greater advances in the years to come.
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The Future of the Weather Enterprise
At a time when the impacts of weather and climate are still growing dramatically, it is important to look for strategies to strengthen the science and technology that have resulted in substantial improvements in the skill of weather predictions and services over the past four decades. It was not that long ago – when many baby-boomers were just entering the workforce – that accurate, reliable forecasts did not extend beyond 24 hours. Today, high-quality 5 to 7 day forecasts are the norm. This improvement has resulted in lives being saved and avoidable damage and economic impacts being averted. ...
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The World Weather Research Programme: A 10-year Vision
Bulletin, Vol. 64(1). WMO, 2015Weather prediction has achieved immense progress, driven by research and increasingly sophisticated telecommunication, information technology and observational infrastructure. Predictive skill now extends in some cases beyond 10 days, with an increasing capability to give early warning of severe weather events many days ahead. Ensemble methods now routinely provide essential information on the probability of specific events, a key input in numerous decision making systems. Partly because of these advances, the needs of the users of weather services have simultaneously diversified to encompass ...
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Megacities – Refining Models to Client Environment
Fast-growing urbanisation, environmental deterioration and climate change are making individuals, organisations and businesses more vulnerable to meteorological and environmental hazards. Modern life requires detailed knowledge about our immediate personal environment – the climate and weather as well as the air, water and soil quality – at work, home or play, may we be indoors or out.
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Climate Services - Transitioning from CLIPS to GFCS
Bulletin, Vol. 64(1). WMO, 2015In 1995, the World Meteorological Congress established the Climate Information and Prediction Services (CLIPS) project “to provide the best possible climate information, including expectations of future conditions, to improve economic and social decisions that will reduce risks and improve economic vitality as well as quality of life.” Since, CLIPS has strived to increase climate knowledge, improve operational climate prediction capabilities, and develop the capacities of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to deliver climate information to meet the needs of stakeholders. ...
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Rescue, Archive and Stewardship of Weather Records and Data
Data repositories and archives play a critical role as the source for the observational data used in the study of weather and climate. After over two centuries of recording observations on paper, observations in the last 20 years have mostly been collected digitally. Repositories around the world now have a mix of data on physical media, such as paper and microfilm, and digital media such as computer disks, magnetic tapes and DVDs. There is risk of data loss regardless of storage media. Repositories must identify, appraise, acquire, archive and migrate data to new technologies to make it avail ...
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Progress in Observing and Predicting ENSO
Bulletin, Vol. 64(1). WMO, 2015Governments, private companies and individuals are demanding ever more sophisticated climate services, as manifested by the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). But parts of the ocean observation network – paramount to the delivery of climate services – are at risk, and the evolution of climate prediction systems is not keeping pace in terms of accuracy and reliability
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Celebrating Fifty Years of WMO Regional Meteorological Training Centres
Following the second World War, governments and corporations recognized that the sciences of meteorology, hydrology and climatology could contribute to safety and efficiency in aviation, and advances in many other sectors of commerce and industry, and to the protection of human lives and property from natural hazards. To achieve those goals, National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) would have to expand their range of responsibilities and place greater emphasis on education and training in order to have capable and effective staff. Accordingly, enshrined in the WMO Convention s ...
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The Hydrometeorological Enterprise: The Benefits of Partnerships
The WMO and the National Weather Service (NWS) of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) once again organized an International Session in the margins of the 95th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in January. This event explored the unique and important role of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in assisting society to improve environmental decision-making in the face of growing vulnerability to extreme weather and climate events.
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The Case for Extended Hydrologic Prediction Services for Improved Water Resource Management
Fresh water is important for human life, economic activity, ecosystem health and geophysical processes. Over the first decade of the twenty-first century, Australia weathered marked extremes, experiencing its warmest period, with 2013 marked as its warmest year since national records began in 1910. Hydrological conditions in Australia are among the most variable on Earth. Its streamflow regime can go through prolonged periods of droughts such as the “Millennium drought” that occurred between 1997 and 2000 across most parts of eastern Australia. This variability has a profound impact on the man ...
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Monitoring Ocean Carbon and Ocean Acidification
Bulletin, Vol. 64(1). WMO, 2015Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) concentration has increased by 42% since the onset of the industrial revolution due to emissions from fossil fuel burning, cement production and land-use change, as reported in the WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin No. 10. As of 2010, the oceans had absorbed an estimated 155 ± 30 petagrams (Pg, 1 petagram = 1015 grams-force) of anthropogenic CO2 [Khatiwala et al., 2013], the equivalent of 28% of the total CO2 emissions during the same time. This factor limited the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Although this ocean CO2 uptake reduces climate change, it also comes ...
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Is the Ozone Layer on the Mend? Highlights from the most recent WMO/UNEP Ozone Assessment
Bulletin, Vol. 64(1). WMO, 2015The 2014 Ozone Assessment provides the latest update of the current state of the ozone layer and makes predictions on when the ozone layer will return to 1980 values. In the northern middle latitudes (35-60°N), total ozone is now about 3.5% less than it was in the period from 1964-1980. At southern middle latitudes (35-60°S), it is about 6% less. The larger depletion in the Southern Hemisphere is linked to the Antarctic ozone hole. Following the decline in total ozone during the 1980s and 1990s, the situation has stabilized since 2000. Hidden under the inter-annual variability, there are indic ...
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Making Meteorological Services more Beneficial to Farmers
Bulletin, Vol. 64(1). WMO, 2015Some 842 million people worldwide cannot afford to eat adequately and are chronically hungry. The links between food insecurity and poverty are clear. Factoring weather and climate information into agricultural decision-making has optimized agricultural production in many countries. However, in developing countries – where most smallholder farms are rain-fed – access to weather and climate information to guide decision-making is limited. Governments should view such information, crucial to farmers, as a means of alleviating poverty and hunger.
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US$5 Million International Research Grant Launched
Bulletin, Vol. 64(1). WMO, 2015The world’s population is expected to increase by a further three billion by 2050 – and 90% of that growth will be in developing countries that currently rely on existing water supplies and rainfall for food and water. The projected population growth will most likely bring global water supply to a crisis point.
