“The weather enterprise is a well-established and successful global public-private partnership in which both sectors share common goals. There are new opportunities emerging to develop this partnership further that will enable the whole enterprise to grow and produce more accurate and reliable weather forecasts. The urgency to do this comes from the need to be even more effective in saving lives and protecting infrastructure because of vulnerability to weather hazards in a changing climate.”
WMO Bulletin Vol.65 (2) – 2016

There is an increasing demand for accurate weather and climate information to serve the needs of our global community. Users may be individuals or corporations and their needs may relate to activities involving leisure, safety or commerce. The delivery of the required information depends on the successful operation of three key elements:

The Public sector: comprises National Weather Services and pan-European entities such as EUMETSAT, EUMETNET, ECMWF and ECOMET as well as bodies with global responsibility including WMO and ICAO. These organisations are principally funded through public taxation and are responsible for large-scale observational programmes, global modelling, public safety warnings and the setting of standards for observations and data exchange.

Academia: Universities and Research Institutes may not be so visible to the public, but they are also an essential element in the delivery of weather and climate services. They provide both the necessary basic training for the profession, as well as research necessary to advance the science of meteorology. This may lead to new methodologies for weather forecasting and guidance on future climate change.

The Private sector: over the past three decades Europe has seen a steady growth in the number of commercial weather businesses that offer direct services to end users in many different formats. These organisations typically seek to access publicly-funded data and customise it to the needs of their customers. They may also run their own local-area models and sometimes find themselves competing with the National Weather Services.

• The Session will be chaired by Dr Louis Uccellini, Director National Weather Service, USA
• Dimitar Ivanov, Executive Assistant to Secretary-General WMO will review current Activities and progress

Three eminent speakers will present their views on the current state of the Global Weather Enterprise:

• Dr Michael Staudinger: President of ECOMET and Director, ZAMG Austria National Weather Service
• Prof Leonard Smith: Director Centre for the Analysis of Time Series, London School of Economics
• Dennis Schulze: Chair of PRIMET and Chief Meteorology Officer, MeteoGroup

This will be followed by a panel discussion to address some issues raised in the presentations.

Co Conveners:
Andrew Eccleston PRIMET General Secretary
Willie McCairns ECOMET Chief Executive