March 23: World Meteorological Day

The World Meteorological Day (WMD) is observed every year on 23rd March to mark establishment of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on this day in 1950.
2017 Theme: “Understanding Clouds”. It seeks to highlight the enormous importance of clouds for weather climate and water. They play a critical role in the water cycle and shaping the global distribution of water resources. Clouds are central to weather observations and forecasts. Clouds are one of the key uncertainties in the study of climate change.
On this occasion, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) launched new edition of the International Cloud Atlas. It is a treasure trove of hundreds of images of clouds, including a few newly classified cloud types and is single authoritative and most comprehensive reference for identifying clouds. It also features other meteorological phenomena such as rainbows, halos, snow devils and hailstones.  This Atlas for the first time has been produced in a digital format and is accessible via both computers and mobile devices.

Background

On this day in 1950 the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Convention came into force that aimed at creating WMO. Later in 1951, WMO became United Nations specialized agency for meteorology, geophysical sciences and operational hydrology. 

About World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

• WMO is an intergovernmental organization whose mandate covers weather, climate and water resources. It is UN specialized agency for meteorology, operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences
• It is dedicated to international cooperation and coordination on state and behaviour of Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with land and oceans, the weather and climate and distribution of water resources.
• It has 191 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was founded in 1873. It has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2017