The WMO originated from the International Meteorological Organization, a nongovernmental organization founded in 1873 as a forum for exchanging weather data and research.[3] Proposals to reform the status and structure of the IMO culminated in the World Meteorological Convention of 1947, which formally established the World Meteorological Organization.[4] The Convention entered into force on 23 March 1950, and the following year the WMO began operations as an intergovernmental organization within the UN system.
The WMO is made up of 193 countries and territories, and facilitates the "free and unrestricted" exchange of data, information, and research between the respective meteorological and hydrological institutions of its members.[5][6] It also collaborates with nongovernmental partners and other international organizations on matters related to environmental protection, climate change, resource management, and socioeconomic development.[7]
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WMO is governed by the World Meteorological Congress, composed of member states, which meets every four years to set policies and priorities. The Congress is led by an Executive Council led by the President, currently Abdulla Al Mandous of UAE.[8]
Governance
The WMO was established by the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization, signed 11 October 1947 and ratified on 23 March 1950. The Convention serves as the constituent treaty of the WMO, setting forth its purposes, governance, and general framework.
The WMO hierarchy:
The World Meteorological Congress, the supreme body of the Organization, determines policy. Each member state and territory is represented by a Permanent Representative with WMO when Congress meets every four years. Congress elects the President and vice-presidents of the Organization and members of the Executive Council; and appoints the Secretary-General.
The Executive Council (EC) implements Congress decisions.
The Secretariat is an eight-department organization with a staff of 200 headed by a Secretary-General, who can serve a maximum of two four-year terms.[9]
The annually published WMO Statement on the status of the World Climate provides details of global, regional and national temperatures and extreme weather events. It also provides information on long-term climate change indicators including atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, sea level rise, and sea ice extent. The year 2016 was the hottest year on record, with many weather and climate extremes, according to the most recent WMO report.[10]
As of August 2023, the WMO has a membership of 193 member states and territories.[11]
The WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS)
Aviation meteorological services
Polar and high mountain regions
Capacity development
Governance
Meteorological codes
In keeping with its mandate to promote the standardization of meteorological observations, the WMO maintains numerous code forms for the representation and exchange of meteorological, oceanographical, and hydrological data. The traditional code forms, such as SYNOP, CLIMAT and TEMP, are character-based and their coding is position-based. Newer WMO code forms are designed for portability, extensibility and universality. These are BUFR, and, for gridded geo-positioned data, GRIB.[citation needed]
WMO states that "the International System of Units (SI) should be used as the system of units for the evaluation of meteorological elements included in reports for international exchange."[17] The following units, which include units which are not SI units, are recommended by the WMO for meteorological observations:
Degrees clockwise from north (°) for wind direction, or alternatively on the scale 0–36, where 36 is the wind directly from north and 09 is the directly wind from east.
The six WMO Member Territories are the British Caribbean Territories (joint meteorological organization and membership),[25]French Polynesia, Hong Kong, Macau, Curaçao and Sint Maarten (joint meteorological service and membership)[25] and New Caledonia. (List of all members with admission dates.)
Membership by regional associations
Regional Association I (Africa)
Region I consists of the states of Africa and a few former colonial powers. Region I has 57 member states and no member territories:[26]
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Republic of the Congo
Côte d'Ivoire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Egypt
Eritrea
Eswatini[27]
Ethiopia
France
Gabon
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Portugal
Rwanda
São Tomé and Príncipe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Spain
Sudan
Tanzania, United Republic of
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Non-member
Equatorial Guinea
Regional Association II (Asia)
Region II has 33 member states and 2 member territories. The member states are:[28]
Afghanistan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Cambodia
People's Republic of China
India
Iran, Islamic Republic of
Iraq
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Qatar
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Republic of Korea
Sri Lanka
Tajikistan
Thailand
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Yemen
The member territories are:
Hong Kong
Macau
Regional Association III (South America)
Region III consists of the states of South America, including France as French Guiana is an overseas region of France. It has a total of 13 member states and no member territories:[29]
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
French Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Regional Association IV (North America, Central America and the Caribbean)
Region IV consists of the states of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, including three European states with dependencies within the region. It has a total of 25 member states and 2 member territories. The member states are:[30]
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Canada
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominica
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
France
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Panama
Saint Lucia
Trinidad and Tobago
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Region V consists of 23 member states and 2 member territories. The member states are:[31]
Australia
Brunei Darussalam
Cook Islands
Fiji
Indonesia
Kiribati
Malaysia
Federated States of Micronesia
Nauru
New Zealand
Niue
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Samoa
Singapore
Solomon Islands
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Tuvalu
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United States of America
Vanuatu
The Cook Islands and Niue (both are in free association with New Zealand)
The member territories are:
French Polynesia
New Caledonia
Non-members
Marshall Islands
Palau
Regional Association VI (Europe)
Region VI consists consist of all the states in Europe as well as some Western Asia. It has 50 member states:[32]
Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Latvia
Lebanon
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Monaco
Montenegro
Netherlands
North Macedonia[33]
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Republic of Moldova
Russian Federation
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Non-members
Liechtenstein
San Marino
States with membership in more than one region
A total of ten member states have membership in more than one region. Two nations are members to four different regions, while eight are members of two regions. These nations, with their regions, are as follows:
^"Executive Council opens with new office holders". public.wmo.int. 5 June 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
^"History of WMO". World Meteorological Organization. 2 February 2016. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
^"Who we are". World Meteorological Organization. 2 December 2015. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
^"Basic Documents". library.wmo.int. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
^"Who we are". World Meteorological Organization. 2 December 2015. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
^"The WMO Building / Conference Centre". public.wmo.int. 12 January 2016. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
^"What we do". World Meteorological Organization. 20 January 2016. Archived from the original on 27 November 2023. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
^Al Mandous, Abdulla (2023). "President". WMO. World Meteorological Organization. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
^"WMO Strategic Plan" (PDF). www.wmo.int. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2013.
^"Climate breaks multiple records in 2016, with global impacts". public.wmo.int. 20 March 2017. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
^"Members". public.wmo.int. 2022. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
^"Former Secretaries-General of WMO". public.wmo.int. 8 December 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
^"The Secretariat". public.wmo.int. 8 December 2015. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
^"The Secretariat". World Meteorological Organization. 4 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
^"IPCC Nobel Peace Prize". Nobel Prize Committee. 12 October 2007. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
^"World Meteorological Day". World Meteorological Organization. 5 February 2018. Archived from the original on 27 November 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
^"World Meteorological Organization – Guide to Meteorological Instruments and Methods of Observation – Preliminary seventh edition – WMO-No. 8 – Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization – Geneva – Switzerland – 2006" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015.
^"UN report: Covid crisis does little to slow climate change". BBC News. 9 September 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
^"United in Science 2020". World Meteorological Organization. 19 September 2019. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
^"International Meteorological Organization (IMO) Prize". World Meteorological Organization. Archived from the original on 3 December 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
^"Professor Dr Vilho Väisälä Awards". World Meteorological Organization. Archived from the original on 3 December 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
^"Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award". World Meteorological Organization. 9 December 2015. Archived from the original on 7 January 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
^"WMO Research Award for Young Scientists". World Meteorological Organization. 9 December 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
^"Professor Mariolopoulos Award". World Meteorological Organization. 9 December 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
^ a b c"WMO – Members". World Meteorological Organization. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 15 December 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
^"Members of Regional Association I (Africa)". World Meteorological Organization. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
^As Swaziland until 2018.
^"Members of Regional Association II (Asia)". World Meteorological Organization. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
^"Members of Regional Association III (South America)". World Meteorological Organization. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
^"Members of Regional Association IV (North America, Central America and the Caribbean)". World Meteorological Organization. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
^"Members of Regional Association V (South-West Pacific)". World Meteorological Organization. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
^"Members of Regional Association IV (Europe)". World Meteorological Organization. 30 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
^Under the provisional designation "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" until 2019.
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Convention of the World Meteorological Organization
Wikimedia Commons has media related to World Meteorological Organization.
"Public website". WMO. Archived from the original on 28 November 2023.
"Severe World Weather website". WMO.
Official website (as of October 2018, this functions as a WMO Extranet for the WMO Community as an interim solution until a new WMO Community website can be launched)