WORLD METEOROLOGICAL DAY 2014 CELEBRATIONS

PRESS STATEMENT BY METEOROLOGICAL WORLD ORGANISATION, AHEAD OF WORLD METEOROLOGICAL DAY CELEBRATION ON 23RD MARCH 2014

World Meteorological Day is celebrated every year on 23 March to commemorate the entry into force in 1950 of the convention that created the World Meteorological Organization.

The day also highlights the huge contribution that National Meteorological and Hydrological Services make to the safety and well-being of society.

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 today’s youth will live into the second half of this century and experience the increasing impacts of global warming.

A new Youth Corner has been launched in order to explain our weather and climate system and encourage young people to take action on climate change.

The celebration at WMO headquarters will take place Monday 24 March programme (pdf). Special guest is Alain Ratier, director-general of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

There will be a live video hook-up with Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and also with researchers at Neumayer-Sation III in Antarctica.

Mr Ahmad Alhendawi, the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth, will deliver a video message. Media are invited to the ceremony