News

Here we will be putting news from IFMS and its member societies. Please send your important News items which you feel are pertinent to members of other societies and should be put on IFMS to the following email address: [email protected].

New Reports: Detailed Report of IFMS Global Meeting #6 (IGM-06)
Detailed Program of IFMS Global Meeting #6 (IGM-06)
Detailed Status Report of IFMS Global Meeting #6 (IGM-06)

Guide for Integrated Urban Weather, Environment and Climate Services: The IAUC is collaborating with WMO on a Guide for Integrated Urban Weather, Environment and Climate Services. The draft is scheduled to be open for community review in March 2018. The intent is to document the best available knowledge and/or technologies and practices that will allow WMO Members and agencies to produce and provide relevant services to cities to respond to a breadth of natural hazards (e.g. extreme weather, diminished air quality, drought and flooding at various scales, etc.).

Future Meetings

Future meetings are uncertain due to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Please follow all the Guidelines to protect against COVID-19. We care….

We urge existing Meteorological Societies of other countries which are not IFMS Members yet, to become members of IFMS and enjoy the benefits of being a member of your fraternity.

If your country does not have a Meteorological Society, we strongly recommend your National Meteorological Society to create one. We will fully Guide you how to achieve it.

AMS Celebrated its Centennial of existence and plan for the next century with an interesting mix of Science and funfair. A tribute by Dr. Harinder Ahluwalia, IFMS President, to AMS is available on this link.

IFMS completed its Global Meeting #6 concurrently with AMS’ Centennial Celebration in Boston, Massachusetts, USA on January 14 and 16, 2020. It featured presentations by Prof. Petteri Taalas, WMO Secretary General, Dr. Louis Uccellini, the Director of the National Weather Service, USA, Dr. Vladimir Tsirkunov, the Team Leader of GFDRR's Weather and Climate Information for Decision Support (WCIDS) Program, Dr. Mary Glackin, President of AMS, Dr. Michael Farrar incoming President of AMS, Dr. Bob Riddaway, President EMS and the IFMS Council members. Dr. Timothy Spangler spoke about WMOs Global Campus and Dr. Walter Dabberdt about AMS Volunteer force Initiative. See the Summary Report of this meeting #6.

WMO-WBG Working Towards Strengthening Global Weather Enterprise (GWE) to Benefit the Society at Large

In August 2014, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) organized a World Weather Open Science Conference (WWOSC-2014) in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS) were asked to organize the following three Panels on Future of Weather Enterprise.

Panel 1: Weather Services Infrastructure: Sustaining what we have and building for tomorrow

Panel 2: Weather Services – Present Status, Trends, and Innovation

Panel 3: Enhancing Weather Community Collaboration to Meet Shared Goals for the Weather Enterprise

A Report for these panels was prepared including the transcripts of the speeches and Q&A. It is available on IFMS Website.

On 28 November 2017, a Global Weather Enterprise (GWE) Seminar/Workshop, organised by the World Bank Group (WBG) in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), was held in Washington DC. Participants from across the public, private and academic (PPA) sectors were invited to the Workshop to discuss the opportunities and risks associated with the future of the GWE. Around 70 GWE leaders from the three sectors participated in the event with World Bank staff acting as rapporteurs. The Seminar was facilitated by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Three members (Keith Seitter, Jack Hayes and Harinder Ahluwalia) of the International Forum of Meteorological Societies (IFMS) attended this Workshop.

The objective of this initiative is to improve collaboration and build and maximize trust within GWE to improve clarity in the respective roles and responsibilities of the different actors to achieve full potential of the GWE. Consequently, the threat of the GWE not delivering what society needs will be greatly diminished by enhancing the mutual respect and trust across the sectors; this will come from greater dialogue and understanding leading to action. In this regard, the GWE needs to act quickly – it has been too slow in the past to address issues that would improve the collaboration between the public, private and academic sectors. A Report of this workshop has been produced and will be made available on IFMS Website. IFMS also prepared a complementary report of this event which is also available on its website.

This discussion was continued on January 11, 2018 at the AMS Conference in Austin, Texas, USA which was sponsored by WMO and organized by AMS. A Report of that event will be prepared and made available on IFMS Website. IFMS also prepared a complementary Report of the event which is available on the IFMS Website.

The potential future meetings are planned to be held at InterMet Asia (IMA) in Singapore on April 11/12, 2018 and at IFMS Meeting #5 September 5/6. 2018 in Budapest, Hungary.

The idea of creating a Weather Enterprise Liaison Commission (WELC) has been discussed. If requested, IFMS, as a neutral body having membership from all the three sectors (PPA), could provide the home for WELC, subject to IFMS Council approval.