WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
AND
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION
FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones
Forty-first session
Dhaka, Bangladesh
2 to 6 March 2014
FOR
FORPARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTSONLY
ONLY
WRD/PTC-41/Doc. 5.4
(26.II.2014)
______________
ENGLISH ONLY
REVIEW OF THE COORDINATED TECHNICAL PLAN AND CONSIDERATION OF
THE WORK PROGRAMME FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
(Submitted by the Secretariat)
SUMMARY AND PURPOSE OF DOCUMENT
This document provides the session with information on the more important
education and training activities of the Organization, which are of particular
relevance to the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones
ACTION PROPOSED
The Panel is invited to review the information to be presented by the WMO
representative and members at this session and make proposals and recommendations
concerning future training needs and activities as amendments and/or additions to the draft text
attached to this document.
_______________
Appendix:
Draft text for inclusion in the report of the session
WRD/PTC-41/Doc. 5.4, APPENDIX
DRAFT TEXT FOR INCLUSION IN THE DRAFT REPORT OF THE FORTY-FIRST SESSION
OF THE WMO/ESCAP PANEL ON TROPICAL CYCLONES
5.4.
Education and Training
5.4.1 The ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (Panel) recalled the decisions of the Sixteenth
World Meteorological Congress that nominated high priority areas such as Disaster Risk
Reduction, approval of strategies such as the Service Delivery Strategy and Capacity
Development Strategy to assist Members to structure and deliver services and the Congress’s call
for the WMO Technical Commissions to develop competencies in their fields of expertise that
provide a minimum common set of standards.
5.4.2 The Panel further recalled that during its previous session competencies for tropical
cyclone forecasters in this region was discussed. Noting that the safety and welfare of many of the
members was heavily influenced by weather and oceanographic phenomena associated with
tropical cyclones the Panel decided to set up a working group to propose a set of tropical cyclone
forecaster competencies for the next session of the Panel. The Panel requested that the working
group circulate the draft competencies two months prior to the session to allow members time to
consider them for adoption during the session. Noting the existing work already undertaken in this
area by WMO Members such as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the Panel suggested that
the working group review these competencies and the output of the other Tropical Cyclone
committees as a first step in drafting competencies for personnel involved in forecasting tropical
cyclones in this region.
5.4.3
In taking this step the Panel noted that such an approach would assist members:
 Provide a more uniform approach to forecasting tropical cyclones;
 Contribute to improving the consistency of forecasts within each member and
between members;
 Assist in allocating the limited regional education and training resources to the key
regional priority areas;
 Allow training institutes such as the WMO Regional Training Centre in India and the
WMO/CGMS Virtual Laboratory for Satellite Meteorology to coordinate their regional
teaching and training activities and contribute towards a common structure that will
allow the region to better meet its agreed goals and targets;
 Assist members to build a case for financial support from Governments to enable
the service to meet, if not exceed, the minimum regional “standards”;
 Contribute to minimizing risks associated with tropical cyclone forecasting failures;
 Assist members show that their services had met “duty of care” requirements by
having staff competent to at least the regional agreed minimum standards;
 Contribute to regional back up activities; and,
 Build upon competency activities in the general forecasting, marine forecasting and
aeronautical meteorological services areas.
The Panel acknowledged that whilst there were many advantages to developing and
implementing a common competency approach each member would need to deal with issues such
as gaining staff support for this approach, juggling tight budgets and rosters to provide time for
training and assessment, dealing with staff who were assessed “as not yet competent” and in
some cases gaining further resources from governments to allow them to meet the minimum
standards.
5.4.4 In parallel with the development of the draft competencies the Panel requested its
members to provide the working group with the information outlined in the annex to this paragraph
to assist the working group scope out the size and breadth of the regional education and training
requirements. This information could also assist groups such as the WMO Regional Training
WRD/PTC-41/Doc. 5.4, APPENDIX, p. 2
Centre in focusing their limited education and training resources to help achieve the best regional
outcome.
5.4.5 The Panel noted that the WMO Secretariat continued to support training activities in the
member countries by advertising the training events and providing partial support to participants.
WMO Regional Training Centre (RTC) in Nanjing organized an international training course on
“Tropical Cyclone Forecast”, from 14 to 25 October 2013, in Nanjing, China. The course had 14
participants from 10 countries. The contents included: Tropical cyclone structure, cyclogenesis,
intensity change and motion, tropical cyclone and climate change, track and structure forecasts of
tropical cyclones, seasonal forecasts of tropical cyclone activity, application of satellite data and
radar data in early warning of tropical cyclones, societal and economic impacts of tropical cyclones
and disaster mitigation and a study tour to the 5th Shanghai International Disaster Reduction and
Security Show (SIDRS 2013).
5.4.6 The Panel noted that through the US Voluntary Cooperation Programme funds, and with
WMO ETR input, the COMET programme has developed the Tropical Synoptic Meteorology
Curriculum Package. This is a university-level, online meteorology course package freely available
to interested institutions. The course addresses the synoptic and mesoscale meteorology
requirements for the WMO Basic Instruction Package for Meteorology (BIP-M), but with an
emphasis on the tropics to provide focus for those working or planning to work in tropical regions.
The course package utilizes existing and newly developed resources, including the online
textbook,
Introduction
to
Tropical
Meteorology
(http://www.meted.ucar.edu/tropical/textbook_2nd_edition). It includes an instructor’s guide, model
syllabus with learning objectives, free online instructional resources, introductory slides for faculty
use, case examples, questions for review or discussion, student assignments, quizzes, learning
activities, and guidance for online course delivery. At least 100 institutions have examined the
package for potential utilization of its contents or as the basis for a semester-length course. A first
offering was made by the University of the South Pacific in late 2013 to 8 post-graduate students.
A second offering is beginning in March, 2014. The University of Bergen/Bjerknes Center in
Norway also used some of the materials in a tropical meteorology course offered face to face.
_____
WRD/PTC-41/Doc. 5.4, APPENDIX, p. 3
Annex to para 5.4.4
To assist the working group tasked with drafting the top and second level tropical cyclone
forecasting competencies members are requested to provide the chair of the working group with
the following information. This information will help determine the possible scope and depth of the
training that may be required to regionally implement the competencies, noting that in the end it will
be up to each member to adapt the second level competencies for themselves to fit national
circumstances, staffing and service requirements.
Information
Total number of staff involved in tropical cyclone
operations
Number of staff(1)involved in
 Providing general support during Tropical
Cyclone Operations
 Providing forecasting support during Tropical
Cyclone Operations
 Leading forecasting support during Tropical
Cyclone Operations
 Forecasting the potential storm tide impacts
 Assessing tropical Cyclogenesis potential
 Conducting re-analysis of TC-events
(1) if a staff member does more than one
activity only count them in the most critical
activity so the sum of these figures should be
the same as the first row
Do you have a CPD plan for the service to ensure
that you will always have people able to
undertake the key roles?
Who does the education and training for your staff
in tropical cyclone matters?
How do you fund the education and training for
your staff?
Nominate:
 the three highest priority areas for education
and training,
 how many people you need training
 how you are going to resource the training
 what you will do if you are not successful in
obtaining the required level of resourcing
What sort of pre tropical cyclone season training
do you currently undertake?
Response
2013
2016