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In response to the current worldwide food emergency, the Secretary-General of WMO has established a Task Team on Food Security. The Team will address long-term solutions for food security, in particular with respect to increasing food production in the context of climate variability and change, through climate outlook forums, workshops and other means. It will develop an action plan and a communication strategy to raise awareness about WMO’s contributions to this global challenge. WMO Agricultural Meteorology Programme
UN Task Force on the Global Food Crisis
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WMO at the Geneva Book Fair 2008
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Jason-2 arrives in California
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Three tornadoes hit Virginia, USA
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| Photo: Associated Press |
The US National Weather Service has confirmed that three tornadoes struck the state of Virginia on Monday, damaging some 140 homes and businesses and injuring more than 200 people. No deaths have been reported. Damage included roofs torn off buildings, cars overturned, trees toppled and the collapse of a new shopping centre.
Very severe cyclonic storm Nargis has developed in the Bay of Bengal. It is forecast to move slowly northwards for some time, and thereafter northeastwards, when it will intensify. The current forecast track indicates that Nargis will seriously affect the coast of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. RSMC New Delhi Tropical Cyclone Centre is watching Nargis closely and providing guidance to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the area.
Severe Weather Information Centre
RSMC New Delhi Tropical Cyclone Centre
The first major fire of the summer season has destroyed some 140 hectares of brush in hills north-east of Los Angeles, California, USA, forcing the evacuation of some 1 000 people and the closure of schools. If the weather conditions continue to be favourable, the blaze could be contained in four to seven days. Southern California is currently undergoing a heat wave that has seen temperatures rise to 37°C. No deaths or injuries have so far been reported.
In October 2007, devastating wildfires in California left seven people dead, destroyed 2 000 homes, displaced 640 000 people and caused one billion dollars of damage.
Celebrating International Year of Planet Earth is the title of the 2008 Joint Meeting of The Geological Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies with the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM, hosted by the Houston Geological Society
WMO is to organize roving seminars in developing regions which will assist farmers in the use of climate information for increasing productivity. The first such seminar will be held for five Sahelian countries—Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal—where it is expected that more than 10 000 farmers will benefit.
The Argentine Meteorological Service, in collaboration with the Spanish Meteorological Agency and the government of the province of Tierra del Fuego, initiated a programme on 16 April 2008 to monitor atmospheric ozone from the global WMO Global Atmosphere Watch station at Ushuaia, Argentina (55°S and 68°W). At the same time, an ozonesonde was launched from Marambio station on the Antarctic Peninsula (64°S and 57°W). The new programme will provide information about the impact of the Antarctic ozone hole on the southern part of South America.
The data from Ushuaia will be transmitted to the WMO World Ozone and UV Data Centre in Toronto, Canada, and will be available to the global community of ozone scientists and other interested parties. The data will also be used in the WMO Antarctic ozone bulletins, published from August to November.
The WMO Statement on Status of the Global Climate in 2007 is now available in English, French, Russian and Spanish (WMO-No. 1031).
WMO Statements on the Status of the Global Climate
This is Severe Weather Awareness Week in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA.
On its Website, the National Weather Service advises how to prepare for, and survive, strong thunderstorms, hail, wind, lightning, flash floods, tornadoes and heat waves. The site also gives the schedule for similar awareness weeks in other states.
A heat wave in northern India, caused by hot, dry winds from the north-west with temperatures above 40°C, has already caused the deaths of 10 people from sunstroke.
At 26°C, the minimum temperature in Delhi was 2°C above normal. The upward trend is forecast to continue.
India Meteorological Department
Sydney, Australia, has had 11 rainy days in a row this April—the longest run for 77 years. The longest spell of continuous rainy days in April was 24 days from 7 to 30 April in 1893 and 15 days in a row of April rain in 1931. Thus year, April has had an average of 6 hours of sunshine a day as opposed to the usual 6.9 hours.
Communities farther north have been warned to expect flash flooding. A severe weather warning has been issued, warning people to stay away from stormwater drains and creeks.
Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Edward (Ed) Norton Lorenz, the first to recognize what is now called chaotic behaviour in the mathematical modelling of weather systems (the butterfly effect), died on 16 April 2008 at the age of 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Director of the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau, Tang Xu, has said that the average temperature in Shanghai has risen 1.4°C Celsius over the past 100 years and the trend will continue. This could mean more extreme weather events for Shanghai such as strong typhoons, tornados, prolonged drought and heat waves.
WMO has selected Shanghai to showcase its multi-hazard warning system.
China Meteorological Administration
The first typhoon (TY 0801, Neoguri) of the year developed in the South China Sea area of the western North Pacific. It is forecast to move northward with slight deviation, and expected to make landfall in the northeast tip of Hainan Island, or pass nearby it to make landfall in the western Guangdong late tonight or early tomorrow morning. The intensity is sustained in the category of typhoon, and will be downgraded in the next 24 hours. The RSMC Tokyo Typhoon Centre has been closely watching the typhoon and providing guidance to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in the area. More detailed information is available at:
Severe Weather Information Centre
WMO and the Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management are jointly hosting a media training workshop for WMO’s Information Focal Points from throughout Europe on 13 and 14 May in Warsaw. An experienced media trainer will be working with the focal points to help them in their dealing with journalists, amongst other activities.
Information note for participants
A 30-minute hailstorm is reported to have killed five people, injured 66 others and damaged thousands of homes in central China yesterday. With wind gusting over 100 km/h, the storm also dropped 6 cm of rain.
China Meteorological Administration
Heavy rains have triggered flooding in north-east Brazil that has left at least 34 people and 190 000 homeless. Roads were washed out, bridges torn down, homes flooded and crops and livestock destroyed.
National Institute of Meteorology
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s work is vital to world peace and WMO will continue supporting its activities, WMO Deputy Secretary-General Hong Yan said today. The IPCC’s latest work on climate change and water underlines the need to strengthen the monitoring and observational capacities of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, particularly in the developing world. Prof. Yan was addressing the opening plenary of the 28th session of the IPCC being held in Budapest, Hungary.
UN Radio interview with Prof. Yan
The UN Bangkok Climate Change Talks mapped out a work programme that structures negotiations on a long-term international climate change agreement, set to be concluded in Copenhagen by the end of 2009.
The meeting also sent a clear signal that the use of market-based mechanisms, such as the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, should be continued and improved as a way for developed countries to meet emission reduction targets and contribute towards sustainable development.
The current La Niña event, characterized by a cooling of the sea surface in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific, is a “climate anomaly”, part of natural climate variability. The global climate on average is warming, despite the temporary cooling brought about by La Niña."
This La Niña started in the third quarter of 2007 and is likely to persist through to the middle of 2008. It is rare for a La Niña event to persist for two years or more, such as occurred from early 1998 to early 2000. The likelihood of the current La Niña continuing for such a period will remain unclear for some months, but will be closely monitored.
The World Health Organization today celebrates World Health Day, with a special focus this year on the health impacts of climate change. WHO selected this theme in recognition of the fact that climate change is posing ever growing threats to global public health security.
WMO is working with WHO to devise a workplan and research agenda to ensure better estimates of the scale and nature of health vulnerability and to identify strategies and tools for health protection.
The 28th plenary session of the WMO-UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is being held held 9-10 April in Budapest, Hungary. IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri will participate in a press conference and launch the IPCC Report on Climate Change and Water.
The Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management joined the Network of European meteorological Services (EUMETNET) project EMMA on 1 April 2008 and is participating in the issue of Europe-wide weather warnings from the meteoalarm Website.
Speaking at the African Union conference of finance and economy ministers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, WMO Secretary-General, Michel Jarraud, said that African countries can be better protected against the damaging effects of climate change, variability and extreme weather events if their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services are strengthened.
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| Jagadish Shukla |
The President of WMO, Alexander Bedritsky, presented the 52nd International Meteorological Organization (IMO) Prize to Jagadish Shukla at an event hosted by the National Academy of Sciences on 28 March 2008, in Washington DC, USA.
The award recognizes outstanding work in meteorology and hydrology, as well as contributions to international collaboration in both scientific fields.
Prof. Shukla was interviewed in the WMO Bulletin 54(4) in October 2005.
The Swiss GCOS Office, the coordination office for the Global Climate Observing System in Switzerland, has published a first complete inventory of Swiss climate measurement series and international data centres located in Switzerland. The compilation identifies for each essential climate variable the extent to which the legal basis, responsibility and financial resources for their continuation exists.
The report is available in print or electronic version (pdf format) in English, French and German through the Swiss GCOS Office at the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss.
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| Rajendra Pachauri |
Strengthening global and national capacities in climate and weather observations was the core message delivered yesterday during WMO’s celebration of World Meteorological Day.
At the official ceremony held at WMO’s headquarters, IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri delivered a detailed presentation of the human-induced impacts of climate change and projections of future climate challenges if concerted efforts are not made to reverse the situation.
Ibrahim Osman, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, also addressed the ceremony, saying his Organization was greatly concerned with the humanitarian consequences of climate change.
The celebration of World Meteorological Day is taking place today at the Secretariat around the theme: “Observing our planet for a better future”. This theme was chosen in recognition of the scientific and socio-economic benefits derived by WMO Members and their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services from the wide-ranging and authoritative observations made in the context of WMO’s mandated activities in weather, climate and water.
The United Nations launched the International Year of Sanitation to accelerate progress for 2.6 billion people worldwide who are without proper sanitation facilities.
World Water Day ’08 had sanitation as its theme.
Message from the Director, UN/ISDR Secretariat
The Director of the Hong Kong (China) Observatory, C.Y. Lam, has said that, in the light of the revised global projections in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Hong Kong could lose its winter by as early as 2020-2029 as the number of very hot days and hot nights rise.
The fifth International Workshop on Sand-/Duststorms and Associated Dustfall will take place in Urumqi, China, from 21 to 24 May 2008, under the theme “Extending our knowledge of sandstorms and dust impact”.
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The satellite was transported by road from Cannes, France, where it was built, to Toulouse, from where it was flown by a Boeing 747 aircraft to Vandenberg.