News

This year, World Meteorological Day on 23 March and World Water Day share the theme of climate and water. In a message to mark the day, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said the world faces challenges over floods, droughts and access to clean supplies.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and ECMWF launched a new web-based interface on 17 March 2020 to help monitor the availability and quality of global meteorological observations.

The EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) implemented by ECMWF has developed a Climate Data Store that lets anyone discover the world’s past, present and projected climate.

Improvements in aircraft weather observation numbers, quality and metadata are possible if numerical weather prediction centres work with the WMO, EUMETNET and the aviation sector, according to experts who met at ECMWF in February.

The warm conveyor belt workshop from 10 to 12 March 2020 will be virtual for external participants as part of measures to minimise potential exposure to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Registration has been re-opened to enable more people to participate remotely.

ECMWF has published the challenges for its third Summer of Weather Code (ESoWC). Applicants have until 22 April 2020 to submit proposals for weather- and climate-related projects that address the challenges of handling large amounts of data and transforming it into information.

Experts from four research and forecasting centres met at ECMWF on 4 and 5 February 2020 to drive forward the creation of a 24/7 European multi-hazard virtual advice service for natural disasters.

Eighty of the world’s top experts on using satellite cloud and precipitation observations in numerical weather prediction came together at ECMWF from 3 to 6 February to review progress and chart the way ahead.

Nine new ocean and sea-ice variables have been added to a multi-model sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) weather prediction database hosted by ECMWF. The new variables will help researchers to explore the predictability of ocean and sea-ice conditions.

ECMWF scientists Marta Janisková and Mark Fielding have shown that using cloud radar and lidar data in global numerical weather prediction can improve forecasts. Their ground-breaking results will be presented during the NWP SAF/ECMWF/JCSDA satellite data assimilation workshop taking place at the Centre from 3 to 6 February.