Haleh Kootval
Chief, Public Weather Services
WMO
Montreal, Canada, 1-2 May 2012

WMO’s Global Operational Network
Global Observing
System
Global
Telecommunication
System
Global Data Processing
And Forecasting
System:
3 World Meteorological
Centres
40 Regional Specialized
Centers
NMHSs have the crucial alerting function and deliver information and warning services

Weather Hazards floods, fire, drought, strong winds, heavy snow etc
Services by NMHSs
Weather Forecasts, watches, alerts, Warnings
Dissemination Methods
Websites, TV, Radio,
Telephone, RANET
Examples of Groups served by
NMHSs
General Public, isolated communities, Government and civil defence authorities etc.

• The 189 WMO Members have crucial public alerting functions, often based in
NMHSs
• WMO infrastructures for observations, analysis, forecasting, and communications can support global implementation of the CAP standard
• WMO supports all-media, all-hazards public alerting worldwide

• WMO Congress in 2007 requested SG to
“improve the exchange of high priority data and products in support of a virtual all-hazards network”
• EC-LX in 2008 requested CBS to follow up on
CAP implementation as a matter of urgency
• EC-LXI in 2009 requested Secretariat and invited all Members and RAs to work towards implementing CAP
• PWS and WIS collaboration
• SG letters to PRs
• Three workshops held in WMO

• Developed for WMO PWS
• Members identify their officially recognized alerting authorities for all types of hazards
• Register has categories of alert messages, plus URL's for forecasts and CAP messages
• Aggregators of alert messages and others can subscribe to a news feed to stay current with any changes to the register
• http://wwwdb.wmo.int/alerting/authorities.html

• Hydrology: Flood forecasting and warning
• Tropical Cyclones
• Severe Weather Information Centre
• SWFDP
• Meteoalarm

• Link providers and users
• Bridge between hydrologists and disaster managers
• Hydrological and meteological alerts disseminated at once
• Messages quantify the level of risk
• Not yet widely adopted (national standards prevail)

• Provides a European alert information on line for weather parameters
• Harmonized as far as possible
• Source: NMHSs
• Users: European locals, traveling public
• CAP in Meteoalarm?

MeteoAlarm operational maps for today + tomorrow
Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik

WMO
Severe Weather Forecasting
Demonstration Project (SWFDP)
 Improve Severe Weather Forecasting and warnings lead time
 Improve interaction of NMHSs with users, including media, disaster management and civil protection authorities, and other user communities (e.g. agriculture, fisheries, etc.)
 Overall improvement in Service Delivery
Two components: Forecasting and PWS
SWFDP Regional Subprojects
 Southern Africa
 South Pacific Islands
 Southeast Asia
 Eastern Africa
 Bay of Bengal
 Several other regions being considered (Central Asia)

SWFDP Cascading Forecasting Process
Global NWP centres provide available NWP and EPS products cut to the project window frame;
Regional centres interpret information received from global NWP centres, prepare daily guidance products (out to day-5) for NMCs, run limited-area model to refine products, maintain RSMC Web site, liaise with the participating
NMCs;
National Met Centres maintain responsibility/authority over national warning services, issue alerts, warnings, liaise with various users
Global Centers RSMC Pretoria NMCs Disaster
Management
Centres
13

•Within the framework and activities of SWFDP, CAP fits in the PWS "dissemination" part
Public Weather Services
SMS; Weather Radio
Systems; Public Web; etc.
E-mail; etc.
Radio; TV
Specific Communication
Systems
Should become CAP-enabled

• Two TC bodies (Typhoon Committee and
Panel on Tropical Cyclones) have considered CAP a potentially useful way of disseminating warnings to the public and other users.
• RSMC/TCWCs may consider the possibility of delivering TC advisories in
CAP format as well
• Overall support but not implemented

Operations
• WMO has promoted CAP
• WMO systems can carry CAP messages
• Very little uptake in the hydrological community
• At regional level limited uptake: Still not fully appreciated
• Adoption on individual country basis
• Promotion needs to be more focused and target specific communities or programme areas

Policy
• WMO created the Register of Alerting Authorities to support CAP “ authoritative” sources of warning
• Several editors have been registered
• Few have edited their country templates as Alerting
Authorities: this needs to be improved
• Register essential to safeguard the authoritative sources of warnings
• WMO Members to refer to their membership in the
Register when asserting their authority for issuing national warnings
• Response to the policy questions may help convince others to implement CAP and participate in the
Register