World

Meteorological
Organization

The World Meteorological Organization

(WMO) is an intergovernmental
organization with a membership of 193
Member States and Territories. The
President of the World Meteorological
Congress, its supreme body, is Gerhard
Adrian[2] as a successor of David Grimes.
The organization is headquartered in
Geneva, Switzerland.[3]
 World Meteorological Organization

Abbreviation WMO

Formation 23 March 1950

Type United Nations

specialized agency

Legal status Active

Headquarters Geneva, Switzerland

Head President
Gerhard Adrian,
Germany
since 2019
Secretary-General
 Petteri Taalas,
Finland[1]
since 2016
Parent organization United Nations
Economic and Social
Council

Website WMO.int

Politics portal

It followed on from the International

Meteorological Organization, founded in
1873,[4] a non-governmental organization.
Reforms of status and structure were
proposed from the 1930s, culminating in
the World Meteorological Convention
signed on 11 October 1947 which came
into force on 23 March 1950. It formally
became the World Meteorological
Organization on 17 March 1951, and was
designated as a specialized agency of the
United Nations.[5]

The organization
WMO has a membership of 193 Member
States and Territories as of May 2019.[6]
The Convention of the World
Meteorological Organization was signed
11 October 1947 and established upon
ratification on 23 March 1950.

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.[7]

The annually published WMO Statements

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.[8]
WMO Strategic Plan
Disaster risk reduction
The Global Framework for Climate
Services (GFCS)
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, CREX, and, for gridded geo-
positioned data, GRIB.

Recognitions received
In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) jointly created by
WMO and United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) received the Nobel
Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up
and disseminate greater knowledge about
anthropogenic (man-made) climate
change, and to lay the foundations for the
measures that are needed to counteract
such change."[9]

World Meteorological Day

WMO headquarters in Geneva shared with the IPCC
and the Group on Earth Observations

The World Meteorological Day is held

annually on 23 March.[10]

Use of the International

System of Units
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."[11] The
following units, which include units which
are not SI units, are recommended by the
WMO for meteorological observations:

Degrees Celsius (°C) for temperature, or

alternatively Kelvin (K).
Metres per second (m/s) for wind
speed.
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.
Hectopascals (hPa) for atmospheric
pressure.
Percent (%) for relative humidity.
Millimetres (mm) for precipitation (or
the equivalent unit kilograms per square
metre (kg/m2))
Millimetres (mm) for evaporation.
Millimetres per hour (mm/h) for
precipitation intensity, or alternatively
kilograms per square metre per second
(kg/m2/s)
Hours (h) for sunshine duration.
Metres (m) for visibility.
Metres (m) for cloud height.
 Geopotential metres (m¢) for
geopotential.
Kilograms per square metre (kg/m2) for
snow water equivalent.
Watts per square metre (W/m2) for
irradiance.
Joules per square metre (J/m2) for
radiant exposure.
Oktas for cloud cover.

Main public outreach

materials
The World Meteorological Organization
at a Glance
WMO Public website
 WMO for Youth
WMO Bulletin (twice annually)
WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin
(annually)
WMO Statements on the Status of the
World Climate (annually)

WMO awards and prizes

International Meteorological
Organization Prize [12]

Professor Dr Vilho Väisälä Awards [13]

Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International

Award (suspended in 2014)[14]
WMO Research Award for Young
Scientists [15]
 Professor Mariolopoulus Award [16]

Membership
As of May 2019, WMO Members include a
total of 187 Member States and 6 Member
Territories.[17]

Ten United Nations member states are not

members of WMO: Equatorial Guinea,
Grenada, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands,
Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent
and the Grenadines and San Marino. Cook
Islands and Niue are WMO Members but
non-members of the United Nations.
Vatican City and State of Palestine and the
states with limited recognition are not
members of either organization.

The six WMO Member Territories are the

British Caribbean Territories (joint
meteorological organization and
membership),[17] French Polynesia, Hong
Kong, Macau, Curaçao and Sint Maarten
(joint meteorological service and
membership)[17] and New Caledonia. (List
of all members with admission dates. )

Membership by regional
associations
…
The member states of the World Meteorological
Organization divided into the six regional
associations, shown on a world map

Region 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:[18]

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[19]
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
Region II (Asia) …

Region II has 33 member states and 2

member territories. The member states
are:[20]

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
Region 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:[21]

Argentina
Bolivia, Plurinational State of
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
 French Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
Region 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:[22]

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
United States of America
 Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of

The two member territories are:

British Caribbean Territories

Curaçao and Sint Maarten

Non-members

Grenada
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Region V (South-West Pacific) …

Region V consists of 21 member states

and 2 member territories. The member
states are:[23]
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
Region VI (Europe) …

Region VI consists consist of all the states

in Europe as well as some Western Asia. It
has 50 member states:[24]

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[25]
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:

France (Regions I, III, IV, and VI)

United Kingdom (Regions I, IV, V, and VI)
Colombia (Regions III and IV)
Kazakhstan (Regions II and VI)
Netherlands (Regions IV and VI)
Portugal (Regions I and VI)
Russian Federation (Regions II and VI)
Spain (Regions I and VI)
United States of America (Regions IV
and V)
Venezuela (Regions III and IV)
See also
Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay
(AMDAR)
Cloud atlas
Global Atmospheric Research Program
(GARP)
Global Climate Observing System
International Cloud Atlas
Regional Specialized Meteorological
Centre

References
1. https://public.wmo.int/en/about-
us/secretariat retrieved on
16.06.2019
2. Adrian, Gerhard (2019). "President" .
WMO. World Meteorological
Organization. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
3. https://public.wmo.int/en/resources/w
mo-building-conference-centre
4. "Who we are" . World Meteorological
Organization. 2 December 2015.
Retrieved 14 October 2018.
5. "History of WMO" . World
Meteorological Organization. 2
February 2016. Retrieved 14 October
2018.
6. https://public.wmo.int/en/about-
us/members
 7. http://library.wmo.int/pmb_ged/wmo_
1161_en.pdf WMO Strategic Plan
Archived 10 June 2013 at the
Wayback Machine
8. https://public.wmo.int/en/media/pres
s-release/climate-breaks-multiple-
records-2016-global-impacts
9. "IPCC Nobel Peace Prize" . Nobel Prize
Committee. 12 October 2007. Archived
from the original on 9 January 2010.
Retrieved 20 February 2010.
10. "World Meteorological Day" . World
Meteorological Organization. Retrieved
20 March 2019.
11. 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
12. "International Meteorological
Organization (IMO) Prize" . World
Meteorological Organization. 9
December 2015. Retrieved 4 April
2017.
13. "Professor Dr Vilho Väisälä Awards" .
World Meteorological Organization. 9
December 2015. Retrieved 4 April
2017.
14. "Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International
Award" . World Meteorological
Organization. 9 December 2015.
Retrieved 4 April 2017.
15. "WMO Research Award for Young
Scientists" . World Meteorological
Organization. 9 December 2015.
Retrieved 4 April 2017.
16. "Professor Mariolopoulos Award" .
World Meteorological Organization. 9
December 2015. Retrieved 4 April
2017.
17. "WMO - Members" . World
Meteorological Organization. Retrieved
6 March 2019.
18. "Members of Regional Association I
(Africa)" . World Meteorological
Organization. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
19. As Swaziland until 2018.
20. "Members of Regional Association II
(Asia)" . World Meteorological
Organization. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
21. "Members of Regional Association III
(South America)" . World
Meteorological Organization. Retrieved
6 March 2017.
22. "Members of Regional Association IV
(North America, Central America and
the Caribbean)" . World Meteorological
Organization. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
23. "Members of Regional Association V
(South-West Pacific)" . World
Meteorological Organization. Retrieved
18 May 2019.
24. "Members of Regional Association IV
(Europe)" . World Meteorological
Organization. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
25. 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.

"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)
"International List of Selected,
Supplementary and Auxiliary Ships" .
International Comprehensive Ocean-
Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS). 1999.
Pub 47. "Including country codes"
"World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3)" .
WMO. August 2009.

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