WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
________________________
REGIONAL ASSOCIATION VI
(EUROPE)
WORKING GROUP ON PLANNING AND
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WWW IN REGION VI
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/DOC. 6.5
(23.IX.2004)
___________
ITEM: 6.5
ENGLISH ONLY
FIFTH SESSION
EXETER, 4-8 OCTOBER 2004
PUBLIC WEATHER SERVICES
(Submitted by the Co-ordinator of the Subgroup on Regional Aspects of the PWS)
Summary and purpose of document
This document comtains the report of the co-ordinator of the Subgroup on
the Regional Aspects of Public Weather Services
ACTION PROPOSED
The meeting is invited to consider:
-
The information contained in the document
That the cross-border-pilot project be extended to the end of 2004
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, p.2
Status Report of the coordinator of the Subgroup on Regional Aspects of Public
Weather Services
1.
The meeting of the subgroup on Regional Aspects of PWS in RA VI in Helsinki 28 –
29 April 2003 has developed a work plan to improve the PWS matters in RA VI. The content
of this report is based on the work plan reported on the PIW-Meeting October 2003 in
Offenbach.
2.
The working group for cross border exchange of warnings and forecasts was leaded
by Dr. Herbert Gmoser. It was agreed that, although EMMA provided an efficient way of
displaying warnings, the work of the subgroup involved setting up the procedure for the
actual exchange of warnings amongst neighbouring NMSs. Three countries namely, Austria,
Germany and Finland (coordination countries) agreed to take part in a pilot project to coordinate the exchange with their immediate neighbouring countries (participating countries).
The following action has been done:
-
The coordinator of the subgroup has informed chair of WWW / PIW of the decisions
of the subgroup meeting.
-
The chair of WWW / PIW has send a letter by end of June 2003 to the NMSs in
Austria, Germany and Finland inviting their participation in the pilot project.
The aim was to start the pilot project by the end of 2003 with a report on progress
after a period of 6 months.
-
In April 2004, Austria and Germany have started the pilot projects with letters to the
neighbour countries.
The active phase of exchange should run from June 2004 to the end of August
2004.
3.
The actual situation is as follows. Austria and Germany have started the pilot
projects with letters to the neighbour countries. So we have a delay of some months. Austria
is since 5 July 2004 distributing automated generated warnings to Meteo Swiss, DWD,
Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Hungary and Slovenia. Until now 307 mails has been
distributed. At the moment feed back to ZAMG is given by Slovenia. Starting time:
9 August 2004, 3 mails were distributed to ZAMG. Attributes: The mails contain a printed
information. The warning homepage is under construction. There are contacts on email basis
to co-operate and prepare the exchange to Meteo Swiss and DWD.
Next actions by ZAMG, Dr. Herbert Gmoser:
-
The participating countries represented by their contact persons are asked to
communicate active in this pilot project
-
the test phase will be extended to the end of 2004
-
Italy will be incorporated in the pilot project soon
-
Czech Republic, Jan Sulan, shall be included in the process of exchange.
The complete report from ZAMG is attached as Annex 1.
The report from Germany, DWD Offenbach, is not ready yet and will be given at the meeting.
As Annex 2 it is attached a report from CHMI, Jan Sulan, regarding exchange of warnings
between CHMI and DWD.
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, p.3
From Finland there are no informations available about the actual status.
4.
The working group 2 „capacity building“, leaded by Teresa Abrantes, worked on the
range of subjects to be included in training events, especially tailored to the needs of RA VI
members. Based on the results of the meeting in Helsinki the group has developed detailed
contents of the training workshop. The purpose of the workshop will be to bring focus to
aspects of service delivery, especially to the public, and will include presentation sessions on
a range of topics which form the core principles of the Public Weather Programme. It will also
contain practical sessions on developing media skills. DWD has insited WMO to run the
training course in Germany, Langen. The invitation letter to WMO was send out in April 2004.
The training course will be held from 18 to 22 October in Langen. EUMETSAT, Meteo
France, Met Office, ZAMG and WMO have agreed to fund the training course. WMO has
send out in September 2004 the invitation letter to NMSs. The provisional programme for the
training course is attached as Annex 3.
5.
The working group 3, usibility and credibility of NMSs, leaded by Elena Cordoneanu,
developed on overlook about existing guidance material and formulated some informations
regarding relationship with the media and other bodies. The report is attached as Annex 4.
6.
A further meeting of the subgroup is planned for April 2005 to review the
programme, to plan future work including reviewing the terms of reference.
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.1
Annex 1
Report on
Cross-border exchange of warnings among neighbouring
countries
Pilot project by the subgroup of Public Weather Services to
co-ordinate the exchange of warnings
End of May a letter by the Director of ZAMG, Dr. Fritz Neuwirth, has been distributed to the
directors of MeteoSwiss, DWD, CHMI, Slovak HMI, NMS Hungary, NMS Slovenia and Italy in
order to invite the immediate neighbouring meteorological services to take part in this pilot
project and to nominate a contact person.
The letter is presented in the annex.
Previous letters by the Chairman of the WG on Planning and Implementation of the WWW in
RA VI, Gerhard Steinhorst, with the subject ‘Cross-border exchange’ had been distributed in
March an April 2004.
The acting President of RA VI, Daniel K. Keuerleber-Burk, expressed his sincere
appreciation of the commitment of DWD/ZAMG/FMI regarding the pilot projects of exchange
of warnings among neighbouring countries and thanked their representatives for their work
for the benefit of the members of RA VI.
Basis document: Report of the subgroup on Regional Aspects of PWS in RA VI, Helsinki 2829 April 2003.
The document is presented in the annex.
ZAMG reached the following answers:
DWD, 19 April 2004, 6 July 2004
Contact person: Rainer Vogelgesang
rainer.vogelgesang@dwd.de
Contact person: Volker Wünsche
volker.wuensche@dwd.de
Slovenia, 11 June 2004
Contact person: Janez Markosec
janez.markosec@gov.si
Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, 14 June 2004
Contact person : Andre Simon
andre.simon@shmu.sk
MeteoSwiss, 23 June 2004
Contact person: Patrick Hächler
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.2
patrick.haechler@meteoswiss.ch
Meteorological Service of Hungary, 6 July 2004
Contact person: Janos Bozo
bozo.j@met.hu
Comando Squadra Aerea, Italy, 28 July 2004
Contact person: Giuseppe Frustaci
g.frustaci@meteoam.it
Mails of Jan Sulan, CHMI, Czech Republic, 17 March and 14 September 2004:
sulan@chmi.cz
… as I promised here is information about situation in CHMI. At this time we have proposal of
new version of our "System of integrated warning service" and we have prepared new editor
of warnings with option of export to web page in sence of WMO or EMMA project. From the
point of view of meteorological service it should not be problem to start our cooperation from
this spring or summer.
… as regards cross-border warning exchange, the situation is somewhat better than in this
spring. According to my information there is an agreement in our top management about
common philosophy of hydrological and meteorological warnings in sense of EMMA or WMO
pilot project. At this time it should be only technical problem and I believe it could be solved
during October or early November.
Actions in the pilot project by ZAMG, circular email by Herbert GMOSER
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 10:18 AM
Subject: Pilot Project: Cross-border exchange of warnings among neighbouring countries
Dear Colleagues,
According to the letter of my director from 26 May 2004 the NMSs of MeteoSwiss, DWD, Slovak
Republic and Slovenia are at the moment participating in the pilot project by the subgroup of Public
Weather Services in cross-border exchange of warnings among neighbouring countries. The list of
partners can be extended step by step. Besides the countries Finland and Germany ZAMG is taking
the leading role to co-ordinate the exchange with there immediate neighbouring countries.
At ZAMG we are starting with the implementation of the application for the automated exchange with
the participating partners as mentioned in the circular letter. You find this letter enclosed in the annex.
Besides your named email addresses
Rainer.Vogelgesang@dwd.de
Andre.Simon@shmu.sk
Janez.Markosek@gov.si
Patrick.Haechler@meteoswiss.ch
additional email addresses in your service are of interest. It is up to you to tell me the relevant email
addresses for the warnings of ZAMG. For the moment your addresses are on the server for
distribution of the warnings.
In the distribution system of ZAMG
MeteoSwiss reaches the warnings of the Austrian counties of Vorarlberg and Tyrol
DWD reaches the warnings of the Austrian counties of Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg and Upper Austria
SHMU reaches the warnings of the Austrian counties of Lower Austria and Burgenland
Slovenia reaches the warnings of the Austrian counties of Styria and Carinthia.
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.3
At ZAMG the distribution of this pilot project is operated by the forecasting division in Vienna.
The text of our email is very simple as given below. You may copy this layout.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Cross border exchange of warnings
This is an automated generated mail of an issued and posted warning to
our website www.zamg.ac.at
Cross-border exchange of warnings among neighbouring countries in RA VI
Working Group on Planning and Implementation of the WWW in RA VI
Pilot project by the subgroup of Public Weather Services to co-ordinate the
exchange of warnings
We have set up a warning on our homepage. Please look at our
homepage www.zamg.ac.at
Date:
Time of issue:
ZAMG, Vienna, Forecasting Division
_________________________________________________________________________________
Your warnings shall reach the Austrian forecasting division in Vienna
synoptik@zamg.ac.at
and
herbert.gmoser@zamg.ac.at in order to validate the exchange during the test phase.
The test phase shall officially start with the 1 August 2004 and shall last for the moment up to 31
October 2004. A report of this test phase shall be prepared and sent to Horst Steinhorst, the Chairman
of the WG on Planning and Implementation of WWW in RA VI and to Wolfgang Kusch, the Chairman
of the Subgroup on Regional Aspects of Public Weather Services. The phase of exchange can be
extended and operationally implemented in the future if the test phase is successful and this
system will not be replaced by an other exchange mechanism. There is no conflict given with any
other distribution of warnings like in Meteorisk and EMMA.
The time of participation can fixed by your own.
In your distribution system you may add the email addresses of our regional offices for the relevant
territories in your neighbourhood to these offices:
Regional office for Vorarlberg and Tyrol:
zamg-ibk@zamg.ac.at
Regional office for Salzburg and Upper Austria:
zamg-salzburg@zamg.ac.at
Regional office for Styria:
zamg-steiermark@zamg.ac.at
Regional office for Carinthia:
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.4
klag@zamg.ac.at
With pleasure I am looking forward getting your feedback. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have
any queries.
Sincerely yours,
Herbert Gmoser
Dr. Herbert GMOSER
Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics
Deputy Head Department of Synoptical Meteorology
Division Head Operational Weather Forecasting
A-1190 Vienna, Hohe Warte 38, AUSTRIA
Tel +43 1 360 26 2303 or 2311, Fax +43 1 368 45 70
E-Mail: herbert.gmoser@zamg.ac.at
http://www.zamg.ac.at
An additional mail was sent on 26 July 2004 to bozo.j@met.hu :
Hungary reaches the warnings of the Austrian counties of Lower Austria, Burgenland, Styria and
Carinthia
At 6 July 2004 an additional email address had been installed for the regional office of DWD
in Munich: intwarn.at@dwd.de thus the regional office in Munich can directly reach the
Austrian warnings.
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.5
STATUS QUO
Austria is distributing automated generated warnings in the pilot project
to
MeteoSwiss, DWD, Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, Hungary and Slovenia.
Starting time 5 July 2004
307 mails were distributed
At the moment feedback to ZAMG is given by Slovenia
Starting time: 9 August 2004
3 mails were distributed to ZAMG
Attributes: The mails contain a printed information. The warning homepage is under
construction.
Contacts on email basis to co-operate and prepare the exchange: MeteoSwiss and DWD
Next actions by Herbert GMOSER:
-
The participating countries represented by their contact persons are asked to
communicate active in this pilot project.
The test phase will be extended to the end of 2004.
Italy will be incorporated in the pilot project soon.
Czech Republic, Jan Sulan, shall be included in the process of exchange.
22 September 2004, Herbert GMOSER
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.6
ANNEX
Letter by Fritz NEUWIRTH to MeteoSchweiz, DWD, CHMI, Slovak HMI, NMS Hungary, NMS
Croatia, NMS Slovenia and Italy
Copy to Gerhard STEINHORST, Chairman of the WG on Planning and Implementation of the
WWW in RA VI
Copy to Wolfgang KUSCH, Chairman of the Subgroup on Regional Aspects of Public
Weather Services of the WG on Planning and Implementation of the WWW in RA VI
Subject: Cross-border exchange of warnings among neighbouring countries
Pilot project by the subgroup of Public Weather Services to co-ordinate the
exchange of warnings
Operations centre ZAMG, Vienna
Dear Colleagues,
During the thirteenth session of the Regional Association VI in Geneva, May 2002, the
Association adopted for bilateral exchange of severe weather warnings in RA VI aimed at
setting up simple procedures for the exchange of warnings among neighbouring countries,
taking into account language differences. It was further requested that the Subgroup on
Regional Aspects of Public Weather Services organise a pilot project. An automatic
generation of the warnings is recommended. The subgroup agreed in Helsinki, April 2003,
that three countries, namely AUSTRIA, FINLAND and GERMANY, take the leading role in
the pilot project to co-ordinate the exchange with their immediate neighbouring countries.
There already has been a co-operation on the exchange of severe weather warnings mainly
by fax between the Regional Centre at Munich (DWD) and the Regional Centres at Salzburg
and Innsbruck as well as a co-operation in the project METEORISK. Besides this cooperation there is operationally existing a cross-border exchange of warnings among
neighbouring countries between the Regional Centre at Munich (DWD), the Regional Centre
at Leipzig (DWD) and the Regional Centre Plzen (CHMI). This exchange uses at the moment
a fulfilled bilingual form via fax. The pilot project by the subgroup of Public Weather Services
takes into account that one of the reasons of problems in the exchange of warnings is laid to
lingual problems. Therefore the exchange of pictogram’s is preferable by electronic ways.
In order to start this pilot project of cross-border exchange of warnings ZAMG contacts with
this letter the immediate neighbouring meteorological services in order to take part. You are
asked to nominate a contact person for the pilot phase.
It is not intended for this pilot project that the EUMETNET project EMMA (European
Multiservice Meteorological Awareness), which aims at producing European-wide graphical
information of meteorological hazards, will be duplicated by this pilot project, but may be
further developed with the EMMA presentation system. The pilot project of the subgroup of
Public Weather Services intends to make the way feasible for cross-border exchange of
warnings in a small area of neighbouring countries.
Although EMMA provided an efficient way of displaying warnings, the subgroup of Public
Weather Services agreed that, the work of the subgroup involved setting up the procedure
for the actual exchange of warnings amongst neighbouring NMSs shall be continued in order
to demonstrate the cross-border exchange. The subgroup outlined the proposal for this pilot
project in cross-border exchange of warnings:


Three countries namely, Austria, Germany and Finland (co-ordinating countries) agreed
to take part in a pilot project to co-ordinate the exchange with their immediate
neighbouring countries (participating countries).
All countries taking part in the project will inform by email their counterparts in the pilot
project of any issued warnings. The text of the message is very simple: - We have set up
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.7


a warning on our homepage. Pleased look at our homepage. (Date and time of issue,
identification of the forecast centre) - .These messages should be generated
automatically once a warning has been issued and posted to the respective Websites of
the countries taking part in the project. Each of those countries is then responsible for
checking the relevance of the particular warnings to their own area of interest and the
subsequent actions to take.
As a first step in the project there is a need for each country taking part, to have a
Website to display warnings, with access allowed to other pilot project members.
If successful, the pilot project may be further developed in co-operation with the EMMA
presentation system.
Actions to be done:
 Your service is kindly asked to participate in this pilot project for cross-border exchange
of warnings among neighbouring countries.
 The participating countries shall nominate a contact person and a centre for the pilot
project
 The cross-border exchange of warnings shall include the regional centres of the service if
possible. The contact person and your centre for the pilot project can be also identical
with
a regional meteorological centre.
 The procedure is based only on a Website to display warnings using the EMMA
pictograms. These procedure shall cover the language differences. Each forecasting
centre is well informed of the actual weather situation. There is no need to explain the
meteorological background.
 If you are not in the position to run a Website to display warnings the mail shall cover the
following explanations more or less taken from the EMMA project:
We have set up a warning.
Parameter: as given below
Thresholds: as given below
Date and time of issue:
Identification of the forecasting centre.
Parameters
heavy rain
storm
thunderstorm
heavy snowfall
freezing rain/icing
phenomena
Thresholds
RR > 15 mm / 12 hours
Wind > 60 km/h
mesoscale thunderstorms
Snow > 20 cm / 24 h
The parameter list does not imply that it is mandatory for each country to address all of them.
Each country is free to define situations he will address. The question is related to available
pictograms on his Website to display warnings.
The thresholds are not necessarily requested as given by ZAMG. The thresholds shall be
first related to the national service. Each country is free to define its own thresholds.
The validity must not be defined yet. A time horizon of 24 hours is foreseen within this pilot
project as the standard time horizon. The pilot project deals firstly with the exchange of
warnings.
The definition of coloured levels used at ZAMG (taken from EMMA):
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.8
Level
General definition
Green
Yellow
No special awareness is required.
Potentially dangerous development
of
weather phenomena have been forecast.
Orange High potentially dangerous developments of
meteorological phenomena have been
forecast.
Red
Dangerous
and
exceptionally
intense
meteorological phenomena have been
forecast.
It is intended to monitor the active exchange of warnings during three months from June
2004 to the end of August 2004. An evaluation and documentation of the pilot phase will be
done in Vienna.
With appreciation recommended the Acting President of RA VI, Daniel K. Keuerleber-Burk,
the pilot project of the subgroup of Public Weather Services to co-ordinate the cross-border
exchange of warnings in RA VI by DWD, FMI and ZAMG and expressed its benefit for the
members in RA VI.
I regret your answer soon.
Best regards
Prof. Dr. Fritz Neuwirth
Director
The Austrian co-ordinator of the pilot project and contact person at ZAMG:
Dr. Herbert GMOSER
Tel.: +43 1 360 26 2303
Email: herbert.gmoser@zamg.ac.at
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.9
Report of the meeting of the subgroup on Regional Aspects of PWS in RAVI
Helsinki 28-29 April 2003
The Meeting of the subgroup on Regional Aspects of PWS in RAVI opened at 09.00am by
the subgroup Coordinator, Mr Wolfgang Kusch who chaired the meeting. The list of
participants is attached as Appendix A. The meeting programme is attached as Appendix B.
A Report was presented by Ms Haleh Kootval, the representative of WMO secretariat on
activities of the PWS programme related to the work of the subgroup. The subgroup was
briefed on the decisions of the Commission on Basic Systems (CBS). In particular, issues
relating to coordination between NMSs and the media, exchange of warnings, pilot Website
projects and capacity building were discussed. The subgroup was informed that it’s own
terms of reference (TORs) were very much in line with decisions of CBS for the future work
plan of the OPAG/PWS.
A report was presented by the Chairman on the division of work between three groups set up
to look at particular TORs. These were:
Group1: Cross border exchange of warnings and forecasts. Group 2: Capacity building.
Group 3: Visibility and credibility of NMSs. These reports are presented below.
Report of the working group 1. (Cross border exchange of warnings and forecasts)
Mr Herbert Gmoser, the leader of working group 1, presented a proposal on this topic based
on Resolution 7.1/1 of the XIII RAVI session (May 2002). This was considered at length by
the subgroup and included discussions on the EUMETNET project EMMA and it’s relevance
to the subgroup project. The subgroup agreed that, although EMMA provided an efficient
way of displaying warnings, the work of the subgroup involved setting up the procedure for
the actual exchange of warnings amongst neighbouring NMSs. The summary of the proposal
is outlined below:
 Three countries namely, Austria, Germany and Finland (coordinating countries) agreed to
take part in a pilot project to co-ordinate the exchange with their immediate neighbouring
countries (participating countries).
 All countries taking part in the project will inform by an electronic message (email & fax)
their counterparts in the pilot project of any issued warnings. These messages should be
generated automatically once a warning has been issued and posted to the respective
Websites of the countries taking part in the project. Each of those countries is then
responsible for checking the relevance of the particular warnings to their own area of
interest and the subsequent actions to take.
 As a first step in the project there is a need for each country taking part, to have a
Website to display warnings, with access allowed to other pilot project members.
 The participants in the project will need to agree on the parameters to be exchanged,
formats, (including graphics) and threshold values.
 The pilot project will last 6 months from commencement. A report will then be written by
each of the coordinating countries and sent to the Coordinator of the subgroup for
evaluation.
 If successful, the pilot project may be further developed in co-operation with the EMMA
presentation system.
Report of the working group 2. (Capacity building).
A report was presented by Ms Teresa Abrantes on the range of subjects to be included in
training events, especially tailored to the needs of RAVI members. These included CAL
packages, although the subgroup recognized that those packages would be limited to
EUMETNET members.
The subgroup agreed to focus on those training topics that emphasized service delivery as
opposed to forecast techniques. Based on this criteria, the subgroup agreed on the following
broad range of topics:
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.10










User focus: Understanding user/customer needs.
Working in a changing environment
o Technology/dissemination: New and emerging technologies as applied to
service delivery. Packaging methods etc for dissemination.
o Economics: Evolving economic situations at national and international levels
that have impacts on NMSs.
o Politics: Evolving political situations at national and international levels that
have impacts on NMSs. e.g. Data exchange policy, commercialisation,
privatisation, down-sizing etc.
o Social: Pollution, urbanization, changing environmental stresses.
Co-ordination with the media
Co-ordination with emergency planners and managers
Verification and service assessment
New and improved products and services: e.g. Use of MSG products, UV index, heat
index etc.
Visibility: Increase public awareness of role of NMss in providing products and
services in support of public safety and convenience.
Economic evaluation: Benefits of having NMSs.
Quality management: To continually assess and improve quality processes.
Co-operation between NMSs and other service providers to improve services to the
public.
Report of working group 3 (Visibility and credibilty of NMSs)
The report of working group 3 was presented by Ms Elena Cordoneanu and a supplementary
presentation on increasing visibility of NMSs was delivered by Ms Marja Leana Komulainen.
It was agreed that the guidance material provided by expert teams on PWS could be
considered as a good source of information for all associated public weather services work.
To maximize the use of the guides it was agreed to provide a summary of the contents to the
NMSs, to be co-ordinated by working group 3. This material is also available on the WMO
home page. (www.wmo.ch).
The subgroup agreed that co-operation with the media was vital in gaining credibility and
visibility for NMSs and that continued efforts should be made at being proactive with the
media, through for example, issuing press releases before an event or as supplementary
information to forecasts.
Issues for consideration as part of a document on the visibility and credibility of NMSs are as
follows:
Relationship with the media
Issues relating to commercial relationships with the media
Definition of public services
Press releases
Media presentation training for NMSs' staff
Developing credibility with the media
Marketing unit
NMSs focal points for media
Distribution of information about weather
Websites
Update of verification schemes.
Relationships with government and national committees for disaster reduction
Raising the level of understanding of weather forecasts and warnings
Provide assistance by NMSs to relevant government authorities to determine the impact of
severe weather events
Collecting meteorological data on damage due to severe weather events
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 1, p.11
Provision of the appropriate verification data to relevant authorities.
Following discussions on all the issues presented by the three working groups, the subgroup
agreed to a follow-up action plan by adopting the work plan below.
Development of work plan
 Complete the meeting report by 7th May 2003
 Coordinator of the subgroup will inform chair of WWW/PIOW of the following decisions of
the subgroup meeting:
 Cross border exchange of warnings
 Letter from Chair of WWW/PIOW by end of June 2003 to the NMSs in Austria,
Germany and Finland inviting their participation in the pilot project.
 Aim to start the pilot project by the end of 2003 with a report on progress after a
period of 6 months.
 Capacity building (training)
 The subgroup will formulate detailed contents of the training workshop.
 The subgroup Coordinator will initiate the process of identifying host facilities,
location, lecturers, invitations to participants.
 The subgroup Coordinator will initiate and develop proposals for funding with a view
to organizing the first training event by mid 2004.
 Participants will be invited from countries in RAVI with greatest training needs.
 Visibility and credibility of NMSs
 The subgroup Coordinator will write to NMSs in RAVI and encourage them to
nominate a national focal point for PWS matters.
 A short description of the guidance materials provided by expert teams on PWS will
be sent by the subgroup Coordinator to NMSs for the use by the nominated focal
points.
 Visibility and credibility of NMSs document to be updated for future reference and
training activities.
 The subgroup Coordinator will report on the activities of the subgroup to the meeting of
the WWW/PIOW in RAVI in October 2003.
Discussion of other important issues facing PWS in RAVI
In addition to the above terms of reference, the subgroup agreed that the following important
issues facing Members in RAVI should be kept under review for consideration by the future
work of the subgroup:
 Economic aspects of PWS – this should be on the agenda for the next meeting.
 Consideration of verification schemes to demonstrate NMS skill.
 Definitions of “public good” vis-à-vis commercial aspects of the work of NMSs
 NWP capability of NMSs.
 User-based assessments and use of responses to those assessments to develop
broader picture of PWS.
 Quality Management issues.
 Communication issues related to probability forecasts to assist forecasters with
communicating probabilities in an understandable manner to public.
 Status of relationship between basic services and commercial activities. (Increasing trend
towards the separation of commercial activities from basic services).
 Subsequent possibility of privatisation and associated issues.
Closure of the meeting
Prior to its closure, the meeting proposed that the next meeting of the subgroup be held in
mid 2004, at a venue to be decided at a later date. The meeting closed on 29 April 2003.
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 2, p.1
Conclusions
from meeting of forecasters from DWD and CHMI
Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic
3-4 th May 2004
1. Participants agree that current cooperation is useful and it should continue even if
CHMI and DWD are to participate in WMO RA-VI pilot project and in future in EMMA
project.
2. For forecasters is much easier to send manually fulfilled bilingual form than use
electronic way of communication. In future it could be useful to install an internet or email platforme for exchange of warnings and basic synoptic information.
3. It is diserable to enhance archiving of sent and received faxes to control statistics of
warnings.
4. For this time it is not necessary to change thresholds of danger phenomena.
5. Forecasters will cooperate in case studies. For this purpose it is desirable to nominate
contact persons speaking English for operational exchange of information (for
example damages caused by severe convection, meteorological data, media reports).
6. Cooperation in road meteorology will be consulted with Mr. Endrulat during SIRWEC
conference in Bingen, June 2004. Proposal of new format of flash warning for winter
road maintenance was presented by Mr. Tomsu, CHMI.
7. For futher cooperation it would be very desirable to replace present non regular email transfer of climatological data by direct regular connection between database
servers. At this matter the agreement between headquarters of DWD and CHMI is
neccessary. Proposal of data format and list of stations was prepared by Mr.
Hostynek, Mrs. Richterova, CHMI in cooperation with Mr. Kugelmann, Mrs.Frisch,
DWD.
8. CHMI and DWD should provide automatic precipitation- and climatological stations
from the German and Czech border-areas in on-line-status.
9. Participants agree with publication of cooperation in warning exchange in bulletin of
Working group for cooperation of european forecasters WG_CEF. Draft text of article
will be prepared by Mr. Sulan and sent by e-mail to other particiants to complete it.
Participants of meeting:
DWD
Wolfgang Weber - Leipzig
Volker Wünsche – Munich
Guido-Peter Wolz – Munich
CHMI
Martin Novak – Usti nad Labem
Radek Tomsu – Usti nad Labem
Jan Sulan – Plzen
Jiri Hostynek - Plzen
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 3, p.1
World Meteorological Organization
RA VI Regional Training Workshop on
Improvement of Public Weather Services
(PWS)
Langen, Germany, 18 – 22 October 2004
Programme
18 October, Monday
09:00 h – 09:35 h
opening
chair: Haleh Kootvall, WMO
opening Statement
Wolfgang Kusch, Vicepresident, Deutscher Wetterdienst
Organizational Remarks, DWD
Hans Bauer, Head of Training and Education Center
09:30 h – 10:30 h
Haleh Kootval, WMO
Working in a changing
Environment::
 global influences
 meteorology
 technology
 observations
 forecasting
 dissemination
10:30 h – 11:00 h
coffee break
11:00 h – 12:00 h
Haleh Kootval
continue
12:00 h – 13:30 h
lunch
13:30 h – 16:30 h
Haleh Kootval, Teresa Abrantes
participants‘ descriptions of National PWS Programmes
19 October, Tuesday
09:00 h – 10:30 h
Jochen Kerkmann, EUMETSAT
Usefulness of satellite data for PWS
MSG products, etc.
10:30 h – 11:00 h
coffee break
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 3, p.2
11:00 h – 12:00 h
Dr. Jacobs, DWD
Improved and new products for PWS, eg.
UV and heat index
Nowcasting
EPS
12:00 h – 13:30 h
lunch
13:30 h – 14:15 h
U. Rupprecht, A. Pfennig, DWD
Evaluating public weather services
14:15 h – 15:00 h
Dr. Göber, DWD
Verification of public weather products
15:00 h – 15:30 h
coffee break
15:30 h – 17:00 h
G. Halbig, DWD
Quality management (ISO 9001)
continous improvement of quality
17:30 h
Tour to EUMETSAT
20 October, Wednesday
09:00 h – 10:30 h
Axel Thomalla, DWD
Economic Aspects of meteorological services
●
Economic value of services
●
Economic assessment of services
10:30 h – 11:00 h
coffee break
11:00 h – 11:30 h
Andreas Friedrich
coordination with media regarding weather warnings
11:30 h – 12:00 h
U. Wesp, DWD
coordination with disaster management
●
How to improve coordination
12:00 h – 13:30 h
lunch
13:30 h – 14:15 h
U. Rupprecht, DWD
Improving visibility of NMS,
here: marketing and public relation
14:15 h – 15:00 h
G. Lux, DWD
Improving visibility of NMS,
here: the function of a press relations officer
15:00 h – 15:30 h
coffee break
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 3, p.3
15:30 h – 16:15 h
Agnes Herber-Pflüger, DWD
16:15 h – 17:00 h
Internet in PWS
A. Herber-Pflüger, DWD
Practice session on the internet
21 October, Thursday
09:00 h – 09:45 h
Andreas Friedrich, DWD
Services for Media and the Public
09.45 h – 10:30 h
Inge Niedek, ZDF (second official TV programme)
Partnership with the media
10:30 h – 11:00 h
coffee break
11:00 h – 12:30 h
Florian Schröder, ask
The Meteorological visualization System for the
Media and other graphic systems for users
12:30 h – 14:00 h
lunch
14:00 h – 17:00 h
Inge Niedek
Forecast Workshop
Practice session on writing radio, TV and press forecasts
Practice session on writing news releases and interview
Techniques
18:00 h
Social event
22 October, Friday
09:00 h – 10:35 h
NN, Meteo France
Practice in Meteo France on delivering media
10.30 h – 11:00 h
coffee break
11:00 h – 12:30 h
Haleh Kootval
●
participants develop
their own ideas to improve their national
PWS programmes
●
participants description of their PWS programme
12:30 h – 14:00 h
lunch
14:30 h – 16:00 h
Haleh Kootval / Teresa Abrantes
Review of the workshop
Closure
Haleh Kootval
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 4, p.1
Subgroup on Regional Aspects of PWS in RA VI
Helsinki, 28-29 April 2003
Report of WG – 3
Elena Cordoneanu
Giovani Maresca
Marja-Leena Komulainen
Terms of reference: ii, vi, vii
“The visibility and credibility of an NMS are derived from its ability to provide demonstrably
useful and reliable public weather services, tailored to the needs of its national community.
The warnings and forecasts must be timely, reliable and comprehensive.” (G.O.P. Obasi).
The WMO efforts in helping the NMSs to fulfil this task, developed inside the PWS
Programme, are concretised in very useful technical Documents:
1. “Guide to Public Weather Services Practices” WMO/TD N0. 834
2. “Public Weather Services in Focus” WMO/TD No. 974
3. “Guidelines on Performance Assessment of Public Weather Services” WMO/TD No.
1023
4. “Supplementary Guidelines on Performance Assessment of Public Weather Services”
WMO/TD No. 1103
5. “Technical Framework for Data and Products in Support of Public Weather Services”
WMO/TD No. 1054
6. “Guidelines on graphical presentation of PWS services” WMO/TD No. 1080
7. “Weather on the INTERNET and other new technologies” WMO/TD No. 1084
8. “Guidelines on the Improvement of NMSs-Media Relations and Ensuring the Use of
Official Consistent Information” WMO/TD No. 1088
9. “Public Weather Services in Region VI (Europe)- Report of Survey” WMO/TD No.
1100
10. “Guide on Improving Public Understanding of and Response to Warnings” WMO/TD
No. 1139
11. “Guidelines on Cross-Border Exchange of Warnings” WMO/TD No. 1179
Based on these documents and on the result of the questionnaire of SG on PWS in RVI
(“Public Weather Services in Region VI (Europe) Report of Survey” WMO/TD No. 1100) and
on our experience we have set few possible solutions in managing the problem of visibility
and credibility of the NMSs.
The key areas for enhancing NMS visibility are:
Relationship with the media
Improving relationships with the media impacts favourably both on the visibility and status of
the NMSs, and on public safety by eliminating possible confusion or misunderstanding.
There are two distinct ways to build a positive relationship with the media:
a. Ad-hoc basis (reactive relationship)
This refers to relationships built during a severe weather event or the period leading up to an
event. All media must have access to appropriate weather information.
Specifically:
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 4, p.2




Someone should be identified as a point of contact for Public Relations (known as PR
Manager for the purposes of this report) in the event of severe weather. Taking into
account the general lack of staff indicated by the questionnaire, this contact could be a
forecaster and during the period of heightened interest from the media, he should have
specific duties: monitoring the event and keeping the media informed.
The PR Manager could organise meetings with the media representatives to inform them
of the event evolution (for relevant procedures see WMO/TD No.1088). A specific
space/office has to be available for this work.
After the event, the PR Manager would revert to his normal duty (weather forecaster etc).
If appropriate, different staff could be nominated to be PR Manager for each severe
weather event. An internal report on the event management could be prepared to
incorporate any ‘lessons learnt’ for future interviews.
During normal weather conditions, the forecaster in charge should provide interviews to
the media. Forecaster involvement builds credibility with the public, increases public
awareness of an NMS and provides an opportunity to explain the forecast.
b. Developing a permanent relationship
This section refers to a long-term supplier/customer relationship with the media, built up over
a period of time. It would be useful for the main point of contact to have a good knowledge of
meteorology and be able to liase effectively with customers.
Specifically:
 An NMS should establish a written agreement with all media interested in publishing or
broadcasting meteorological output (state and private media). The agreement should
contain the details of all required products and services in both normal and severe
weather conditions.
 Internal instructions must be provided to relevant staff detailing each agreement with
information such as:
o Data and products supplied.
o The time data/products are required.
o How the data/products are disseminated.
o Contact details.
(WMO/TD No. 1103, 1084)
 The NMS Production unit responsible for media output may have different
dissemination methods for normal and severe weather conditions. It is preferable that
representatives from the media call for information to a nominated telephone number
during the period of a severe weather event.
 The agreement with the media could include provision for interviews with NMS
specialists. They will explain interesting meteorological behaviour in the country and
around the world, how a forecast is produced, how much work it includes, everything
considered useful for increasing public understanding.
 NMS organise meetings with the media representatives on how to meet their
requirements, produce questionnaire or Web page to obtain their suggestions.
 Distributing brochures about the weather forecast in general, the products in
particular
 Relationship with government and national committees for disaster reduction
Due to increasing national and global economic problems, many NMSs have to justify
continuous government support, especially significant investment such as automated surface
stations, data processing supercomputers and radars. To maintain a good relationship with
government bodies, the NMS should:
 Supply data and products to the appropriate department. For example, the city
forecasts on the WMO website may be used to advise VIPs in their travels.
 Provide timely advice to emergency planners, raising the understanding of weather
forecast and warnings
 Provide forecast verification data to the national relevant authorities
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 4, p.3


Help to identify connections between severe weather events and damage to
property/infrastructure.
Collect data about damage associated with severe weather events
Relationship with commercial customers
This relationship is usually established on the basis of a formal contract and the NMS will
have contractual obligations to provide any commercial products or services to agreed
specifications. Evaluation or verification of the service provided by the NMS is desirable to
maintain a positive relationship with the customer. This may involve use of a questionnaire to
find out their opinions (WMO/TD No. 1023, 1103).
Direct services to the public
Services to the general public may include:
 A web home page with a feedback option.
 Provision of basic national and regional scripts, usually provided via media such as
radio or other websites.
 Visits of schoolchildren, teachers or local groups. Also NMS specialists, such as
forecasters may act as invited speakers.
Forecast presentations
There are two cases:
 Media/users requiring complete product/service
Depending on the structure of each NMS, a dedicated unit for preparing graphics may be
required to provide a full service to the media. If necessary, the forecaster should prepare
a basic product, which can be modified to the requirements of different customers. Any
dedicated graphics unit are likely to work very closely to the forecaster in charge. See
WMO/TD No. 1080 and 1084 for further guidance.
 Media/users produce their own graphics/presentations
In the case of media customers who prepare their own graphics, it is important to try and
monitor the output to maintain quality. However, it is difficult to convince the customer
that they should change the emphasis of their presentation. The guidance available from
WMO/TD No. 1080 may be useful.
TV Weather Presenters
Most media TV have their own staff for presentations, often non-meteorologists, who
have little knowledge of the weather. In this respect, it is recommended that each NMS
organise national training courses to ensure basic weather knowledge for presenters.
The courses should be free of charge; NMS’ will benefit in the longer term from more
consistent presentations and less public criticism of the forecast.
Training for staff involved in media work
In general, there seems to be a lack of training for PWS. It is important that staff, including
forecasters, who are involved in public relations and dealing with the media should be trained
appropriately. It is equally important that NMS managers be trained in the organisation of
public weather services.
RA VI Regional Training Workshop on Improvement of PWS will be held in Langen,
Germany, 18-22 October 2004.
 Monitoring forecast quality
A major role of an NMS is to monitor and improve the quality of its products and services.
Secondly, NMSs have to ensure that they meet user requirements, and that users have a positive
RA VI/WG/PIW-V/Doc. 6.5, Annex 4, p.4
perception of, and are satisfied with the products. This will increase the visibility of an NMS and
maintain a good relationship with the public.
The verification process should include:

Establishment of a skill and accuracy reference against which subsequent changes in
forecast procedures or the introduction of new technology can be measured;

Identification of the specific strengths and weaknesses in a forecaster's skills and the
need for forecaster training

Information to the management about a forecast programme's past and current level of
skill to plan future improvements; information can be used in making decisions
concerning the organisational structure, modernisation and restructuring of the
national Meteorological Service (NMS)
The evaluation of the user satisfaction is also necessary since even a highly accurate and
skilful forecast will not produce an effective public weather services programme if it does not
respond to user needs.