Rapidly changing winter weather, Swiss Alps
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “And now the mountain weather forecast for the next two minutes!” Such extremely short-term weather forecasting might be a thing of the future, but scientists are gathering and studying data in Vancouver, Canada to help them reach that point. The 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Canada are hosting one group of experts whose specialty is not a sport, but very short term weather forecasts, called “nowcasting”, which make predictions up to six hours before an event.
A team of scientists from nine countries assembled by the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization and Environment Canada is conducting a weather research and development project called the Science and Nowcasting of Olympic Weather for Vancouver 2010, aka Snow-V10.
Nowcasting has already been used for Olympic Games, but in summer, at the Sydney 2000 Games and the Beijing 2008 Games. The prediction of winter weather in mountains is more difficult because conditions change rapidly with time and altitude.
Homeless Haitians, post-earthquake, have set up tents on a golf course (photo: ©2010 Marco Dormino/UN)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva Tuesday 9 February made an urgent plea for another kind of aid for Haiti: weather services. The organization points out that “the rainy season with flood risk is due in early April and the hurricane season begins in early June. In order to prevent potential disasters related to natural hazards, which the country is prone to, the capacity of Haiti to produce and disseminate weather information and warnings needs to be developed without delay.”
More than 90 percent of the disasters in Haiti “are linked to frequently occurring meteorological, hydrological and climate-related hazards,” says the WMO.
The country’s meteorological services have operated only partially since the 12 January earthquake, so other WMO member countries have been providing weather information.
Weather risks to civil aviation in WMO meeting
Geneva, Switzerland and Hong Kong, China (GenevaLunch) – The Geneva-based WMO (World Meteorological Organization) is bringing together about 150 national weather services experts for a week of meetings in Hong Kong, China, to review how to help the airline industry. Modern air travel is in need of more timely and more accurate weather data to improve safety, according to the WMO. The meeting, which starts 3 February, includes aeronautical meteorologists and aviation industry representatives.
Three-quarters of air traffic delays and almost half of the accidents to aircraft are weather-related. The probable increase of extreme weather events will increase the risk to aviation, argues the WMO.
WMO says temperatures up, also calls for drought indices
Click on image to view larger
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Climate change and global warming are under discussion in chilly Copenhagen this week, and in Geneva the World Meteorological Organization is contributing its share of scientific data to heat up the debate. The WMO late Tuesday published its latest report on global temperature changes, which shows that “2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850.”
Next stop, Nuuk. © 2008, Princess Cruises
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The breakup of Arctic pack ice due to global warming means an increasing number of icebergs drift into sea lanes in the North Atlantic, and 2009 was the eleventh most severe in that respect since 1912, the year the Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg.
An growing number of ships are venturing into seas at latitudes and in months that were impossible before. This increases the risks and the opportunities to shipping, and the need for up-to-date information and well-trained crews, according to a report by the International Ice Charting Working Group (IICWG) which met in Geneva at the World Meterological Organization 12-16 October.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Eight countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus and five in Southeast Asia are implementing early warning systems to protect against weather-related events, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Today 14 October is International Day for Disaster Reduction, and the agency is highlighting how early warning and disaster risk reduction can save many lives when extreme weather strikes. Similar projects were introduced in seven southeast European countries in 2007.
These national and regional cooperation projects are part of a concerted programme that relies on technical expertise and funding provided by the WMO, the World Bank, UNDP and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).
“Natural hazards are a part of life. But natural hazards only become disasters when people’s lives and livlihoods are swept away…” (Kofi Annan, World Disaster Reduction Day, 2003)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The worst floods in decades in southern India have killed at least 250 people and left some 2.5 million people homeless. Aid workers from around the globe have “fanned out” across the region, reports the Press Association, to meet the urgent needs of people who only weeks earlier were suffering from severe drought. The torrential rains appear to have been caused by a low pressure zone over the Bay of Bengal and more rain is expected in the next 24 hours, say weather forecasters.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One hundred forty deaths have been attributed to weekend flooding in the Philippines, drenched Saturday by tropical storm Ketsana, which dumped a record amount of rainfall: 410.6 millimetres in nine hours in the Manila metropolitan area. Ondoy, as the storm is called in the Philippines, submerged parts of the city and the Rizal area, affecting more than 400,000 people. The storm was heading late Monday Philippines time across the Sea of China towards Vietnam, but the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) in Geneva says the country is bracing for yet more rain. The rainfall is the most received in such a period since 1967.
Video,Associated Press
Links to other sites: CBS News
NSW, Australia 24 September 2009 dust storm (image: Australian Weather Bureau)
Qld, Australia, borders showing, dust storm 23 September 2009 (Image: Australian Weather Bureau)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Sydney, Australia is dusting itself off after gale-force winds dumped millions of tons of dust on it from the deserts west of the city, gumming up transportation systems, delicate machinery, people’s lungs and the view. The same winds are currently depositing thin films of dust in parts of New Zealand. Sydney is preparing for a second round of dust storms. Australia is not one of the countries currently implementing a new early warning system for sandstorms, which might have helped prevent some of the chaos, according to officials at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva. “Until now, Australia has not been affected in a major way by this kind of storm,” a spokesperson explained to GenevaLunch.
”The reported level of suspended particulate mass (PM10) in highly populated Sydney was around 1,000 times higher than on a clear day,” said WMO’s specialist on sandstorms, Len Barrie.
Getting out while there's time
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Updated: Jimena video below / Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Hurricane Jimena is moving in on Cabo San Lucas, the Mexican resort town in southern Baja California, packing 195 km winds. Hotel guests are huddled in their boarded-up rooms.
Mexican authorities are polishing evacuation plans for people most at risk from flooding and storm surges.
Reducing disasters risk: debate at the World Climate Conference in Geneva
The incredibly detailed information at hand to track Jimena and other major weather events like it is the result of a complex interplay of sources of information from the most obvious, satellite images in almost real time, to a range of what climatologists call observations from the ground. The satellite data is collated with radar images, barometric information, wind speed and temperatures that are carefully collected and evaluated. For storms such as hurricane Jimena, the infrastructure is in place and the information is at hand. The first challenge to the scientists is to make the data available quickly and in a useful way to people at all levels, in order for them to be able to make meaningful decisions concerning safety and well-being.
Gordon Shepherd, WWF international policy and Martin Sommerkorn, WWF Arctic research, at Geneva climate conference
Photo: Marco Tedesco, WWF
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One-quarter of the world’s population is likely to be affected by rising ocean levels provoked by melting Arctic ice, a WWF study released 2 September shows. The Arctic is heating up at twice the rate of the rest of the Earth, the new Arctic Climate Feedbacks report shows. As a result, the level of oceans can be expected to rise by one metre by the end of the 21st century, twice as fast as current predictions suggest.
The report pulls together the most recent data covering the Arctic and its impact. It includes the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica in global sea level projections, which were not included in the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 2007 assessment of the Arctic, widely relied on. The addition of these areas appears likely to change temperature and precipitation patterns in Europe and North America, affecting agriculture, forestry and water supplies, the new data shows.
Photo: Marco Tedesco, WWF
The Arctic holds twice as much carbon as the rest of the world and the study indicates that as warming speeds up, carbon released by warmer soils could reach significant levels. Read more…
Geneva, Switzerland: third World Climate Change Conference 2009
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Small is increasingly seen as beautiful by climate experts, who say that making more information available about climate change at a local level is a key to helping the world adapt.
Leading specialists in the field, meeting at the World Climate Conference (WCC-3) which opened Monday 31 August in Geneva, are also putting the accent on developing countries, saying that while we all need more local information about climate change, these countries are in critical need of micro-solutions. These will be developed, however, only when appropriate, accurate, user-friendly weather information is available to them. Many developing countries lack even the most basic weather information, disseminated on a large scale.
© 2009 CICG
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The third World Climate Conference (WCC-3) promises “better climate information for a better future” but in the immediate short term it is expected to cause a severe strain on Geneva’s traffic and accommodations this week.
The World Meteorological Organization in Geneva hosts the one and only “official” weather forecasting site for cities around the world, with data provided by members of the WMO: the world’s national weather services. The site is offered in several languages, with Italian added in the summer of 2009. By July 2009 the weather for 1,321 cities was available.
Lake Geneva
Complete coverage of the WCC-3 by GenevaLunch
Conference is 31 August – 4 September 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva is home this week to a key global conference on how the world can adapt to climate change – disasters such as floods and hurricanes, but also the more subtle changes that affect agriculture, tourism and daily life.
The conference agenda is wide-ranging and includes improvements to early warning systems for disasters and how to provide more precise and more localized weather forecasting, needed by developing countries as well as industries in the developed world.
The meeting is hosted by Switzerland and organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and a group of partners.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The heads of five international organizations have put their support behind an online global petition to world leaders to insist on a successful outcome to UN-led negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen Denmark in December 2009.
The organizations are: the World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, World Meteorological Organization, World Trade Organization and the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government will be pushing to strengthen Geneva’s role as the global centre for climate information when it participates in the Third World Climate Conference in Geneva 31 August to 4 September 2009. The conference will establish a system to improve the availability of climate information and predictions for government, the private sector, aid and other organizations.
Switzerland “considers climate information to be a key tool to strengthen society, particularly in developing countries, against the socio-economic consequences of climate change. Switzerland’s medium-term aim is to see the creation of the Global Framework for Climate Services and its embedding at the WMO (World Meteorological Organization). This would also serve to strengthen Geneva as a location for the coordination of future efforts in the dissemination of climate information,” Bern notes in a press release 25 June.
Jeremiah Lengoasa, World Meteorological Organization
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A major effort to bring useful weather information to the people who need it in Africa was highlighted at the Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) conference which opened in Geneva, Switzerland, 23 June. Five thousand mobile weather stations are to be deployed throughout Africa in the next decade, the GHF announced 18 June.
At today’s conference, World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Jeremiah Lengoasa noted that traditional weather reports worked on a 300km scale of resolution, while farmers and fishermen required weather information on a 5-10km scale.
Global Humanitarian Forum, Kofi Annan, 23 June 2009, Geneva
Update 2 13:01 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “This conference must provide a powerful voice for the victims of climate change,” Kofi Annan said in opening remarks at the second annual Global Humanitarian Forum, Tuesday morning 23 June in Geneva. The forum is focusing on the impact on humans of climate change during the two day conference that brings together leaders from government, industry and academia.
”We have the knowledge, resources and the technology to reduce the pace of climate change,” said Annan. “What is needed is the vision, the courage” to act. He cited as an example of a good private and public partnership a weather information project recently launched in Africa by the Global Humanitarian Forum, Ericsson, World Meterological Organization and mobile phone operators. “Collecting accurate information about weather and climate across Africa will give farmers better guidance about when to plant and harvest crops as well as helping alert communities about severe storms.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – (update) Air France flight 447, which was lost in stormy weather over the Atlantic ocean 1 June, may have benefited from the aircraft meteorological data relay (Amdar) programme, coordinated by the Geneva-based World Meterological Organization (WMO). The WMO told GenevaLunch that two Lufthansa flights in the area at the time were reporting Amdar data, but were not reporting turbulence. The Air France A330 was not equipped to relay the data, the WMO says.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – More than two million poeple have died in the past 30 years from 75 natural disasters. Three-quarters of the disasters were caused by weather, says the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The mortality rate could be halved by 2019 if national and regional governments make a strong commitment to early warning systems and climate services as basic tools for reducing risks, says Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the WMO. The mortality rate he refers to is a 10-year average fatality for the period 1994-2003 for weather-, climate- and water-related natural disasters.
World climate conference to be held in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Climate Conference, to be held in Geneva in August, has received an important pledge of financial support from the US, however, the Associated Press reports that a formal submission presented by the US to the United Nations offers no specifics for achieving a low-carbon strategy for long-term net emissions reductions by 2050.
