World Meteorological Day
The World Meteorological Organization plays a crucial role in contributing to people’s safety and welfare. Its work is important in providing food security, water resources and transport. World Meteorological Day has been observed on 23 March each year since 1961. This year’s World Meteorological Day theme is “Weather and climate: engaging youth.” Today’s youth will benefit from the dramatic advances being made in our ability to understand and forecast the Earth’s weather and climate. At the same time, most of them will live into the second half of this century and experience the increasing impacts of global warming. WMO encourages young people to learn more about our weather and climate system and to contribute to action on climate change.
The World Meteorological Day is annually held on or around 23 March to commemorate the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization, which was earlier known as International Meteorological Organization. The International Meteorological Organization was established at the first International Meteorological Congress in Vienna, Austria, in 1873. The organization aimed to establish meteorological station networks. These networks were linked by telegraph and improved weather forecasts. This contributed to shipping services’ safety and efficiency. The International Meteorological Organization became the World Meteorological Organization on 23 March 1950. It became the UN’s specialized agency for meteorology, operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences in 1951.
