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World Meteorological Organization News

08 Feb 2022

Maersk Vessels Transmit Live Weather Data to Meteorologists

(Photo: A.P. Moller - Maersk)

Container shipping giant A.P. Moller - Maersk said it has teamed up with National Meteorological Service of Germany, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) to install automated weather stations enabling a portion of its fleet to transmit live data to help forecast weather and climate.In the largest project of its kind, A.P. Moller - Maersk (Maersk) has installed automated weather stations (AWS) on 50 of its vessels creating a pulsating oceanic web of weather and climate observations. All collected data is transmitted live to the National Meteorological Service of Germany…

15 Dec 2021

Ships Traveling the Thawing Arctic are Leaving Garbage in Their Wake

© Parilov / Adobe Stock

Following another year of stark climate impacts in the Arctic, scientists warned Tuesday of a new scourge hitting the region: marine trash.With the region warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, sea ice that has long blanketed the Arctic Ocean is disappearing, opening new routes to shipping. Scientists began noticing the trash bobbing in the icy water or piling up on Alaska Bering Strait-area beaches last year.“That’s a direct result of increased human maritime activities…

29 Oct 2019

WMO-IMO Addresses Extreme Maritime Weather

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) held the first joint symposium on  extreme maritime weather: Towards safety of life at sea and a sustainable blue economy.The symposium has highlighted the need for the gap to be closed between met-ocean (meteorology and oceanography) information providers and the users of this information in the maritime industry.The October 23-25 event at IMO headquarters in London brought together about 200 stakeholders from shipping (including freight, passenger ferries, cruise liners), offshore industry, ports and harbors, coast guards, insurance providers and the met-ocean community - both public and private).Global examples of extreme maritime weather and a wide variety of related issues were discussed.

10 Jan 2019

U.S. Forecaster Sees 65 pct Chance of El Niño in Spring

There is a 65 percent chance of an El Niño weather pattern emerging during the northern hemisphere spring this year, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on Thursday."However, given the timing and that a weak event is favored, significant global impacts are not anticipated during the remainder of winter, even if conditions were to form," the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) added in its monthly forecast.Last month, the weather forecaster pegged the chances of the El Niño emerging at 60 percent during spring 2019.The last El Niño, a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific that typically occurs every few years…

17 Feb 2017

Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice at Record Low in January

Photo: © staphy / Adove Stock

The extent of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic last month was the lowest on record for January, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said on Friday, while concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a January record. "The missing ice in both poles has been quite extraordinary," David Carlson, director of the World Climate Research Programme, told a U.N. briefing in Geneva. "It is a quite strange situation. The month of January was probably the second or third hottest such month on record, but that was not a reliable indicator of the state of the climate, he said.

23 Oct 2015

Hurricane Patricia Threatens Mexico

Photo: NOAA

Hurricane Patricia strengthened into one of the most powerful storms in history on Friday as it barreled toward Mexico's Pacific Coast, forcing resort hotels to evacuate tourists and residents to stockpile supplies. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the Category 5 storm was the strongest ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, and the World Meteorological Organization compared it to 2013's Typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands in the Philippines. It was expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon or early evening, the NHC added.

28 Mar 2015

Chile Desert Rains Sign of Climate Change

The heavy rainfall that battered Chile's usually arid north this week happened because of climate change, a senior meteorologist said, as the region gradually returns to normal after rivers broke banks and villages were cut off. "For Chile, this particular system can only be possible in an environment of a changed climate," Deputy Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization Jeremiah Lengoasa told Reuters on a visit to Santiago on Friday. The intense rainfall that began Tuesday in an area that is home to the Atacama, the world's driest desert, had resulted in nine deaths by Friday, with 19 people still missing, nearly 6,000 people in temporary housing and some roads cut off, the government's emergency office Onemi said.

19 Mar 2015

Arctic Sea Ice Sets Record Low Extent at Winter Maximum

Photo courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center

Arctic sea ice has set a new winter record by freezing over the smallest extent since satellite records began in 1979, in a new sign of long-term climate change, U.S. data showed on Thursday. The ice floating on the Arctic Ocean around the North Pole reached its maximum annual extent of just 14.54 million square kms (5.61 million sq miles) on Feb. 25 - slightly bigger than Canada - and is now expected to shrink with a spring thaw. "This year's maximum ice extent was the lowest in the satellite record…

06 Mar 2015

Holland America Line Heads NOAA's List of Weather Observations

Holland America Line topped the list in 2014 for the World’s Leading Weather Observing Cruise Ship Companies who submitted weather information to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Holland America Line fleet of 15 ships sent in a combined total of 22,281 observations during the year, landing them at number one. Holland America Line also was at the top of the list in 2008 and 2006. Among individual cruise ships that sent in information, ms Oosterdam lead the Holland America Line fleet with 2,858 observations. ms Zaandam, ms Volendam, ms Zuiderdam and ms Amsterdam also were listed among the top 10 of all individual cruise ship observations.

03 Dec 2014

WMO: This Year May be Warmest on Record as Oceans Heat Up

Record high ocean temperatures will make 2014 the hottest year on record, or at least among the very warmest, in evidence of a long-term trend of global warming, the U.N.'s weather agency said on Wednesday. Including this year, 14 of the 15 most sweltering years on record will have been in the 21st century, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said of the findings issued during 190-nation talks in Lima on ways to fight climate change. "There is no standstill in global warming," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

26 Nov 2013

U.S. Navy Responds to Increased Arctic Activity

Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Alexandria (SSN 757) is submerged after surfacing through two feet of drifting ice about 180 nautical miles off the north coast of Alaska. U.S. Navy photo by Shawn P. Eklund

The loss of seasonal sea ice in the Arctic will have ramifications for the U.S. Navy in terms of future missions, force structure, training and investments. To get a better handle on planning for future Arctic missions, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert asked me to provide an unambiguous assessment of how ice coverage will change in the Arctic and how human activity in the Arctic will change in response to decreased ice coverage and other factors. To understand this challenge, let me give you a little background.

26 Nov 2013

When Will New Arctic Maritime Crossroad Open?

US Warship in Ice: Photo credit USN

Rear Adm. Jon White, 
Oceanographer & Navigator of the Navy, Director Task Force Climate Change, was tasked by the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert  to provide an unambiguous assessment of how ice coverage will change in the Arctic and how human activity in the Arctic will change in response to decreased ice coverage and other factors. "The loss of seasonal sea ice in the Arctic will have ramifications for the U.S. Navy in terms of future missions, force structure, training and investments. To understand this challenge, let me give you a little background.

08 Sep 2008

Downloading a Solution

When Otto Candies LLC needed to integrate in-transit vessel tracking and real-time project management with accounting and shore-side operations, it turned to MarineCFO.

Stricter environmental regulations and soaring fuel prices have vessel owners and operators looking for innovative means to drive their vessels more efficiently and cost-effectively. Shipowners and operators faced with mounting fuel costs and tightening environmental regulations are looking at a big hit to the bottom line, and savvy owners are searching for solutions that show promise to reduce operating costs and emissions. While everything is on the table — from modernized machinery to more efficient coatings — the recent improvement in communications alternatives between ship and shore (ie.

05 Jun 2002

UN Atlas of the Oceans is Launched

IMO has joined with a host of other United Nations agencies and leading international scientific bodies in developing the first comprehensive real-time tool to assess the state of world's oceans. The Internet-based United Nations Atlas of the Oceans was launched on World Environment Day June 5, 2002 at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris, France. More than 2½ years in development after a decade of planning, the Atlas of the Oceans represents the most ambitious global scientific information collaboration ever on-line and an international consensus-building tool expected to assist negotiations of future marine-related agreements.

05 Jan 2005

Tsunami: IMO to Co-ordinate Maritime Restoration

As global attention in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami tragedy turns towards the massive job of repairing long-term damage and restoring battered infrastructures, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is playing its part in co-ordinating efforts to attend to the maritime infrastructure in the affected regions. IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos has stressed the strategic importance of ensuring that ports, navigational aids and other key elements of the maritime infrastructure are in effective working order as soon as possible, both to facilitate the medium and long-term recovery of the affected areas and to ensure that short-term aid arriving by sea can do so efficiently and in safety.

06 Jul 2007

WMO Chief to Address IMO Meeting

Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is scheduled to address the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), when it meets for its 56th session from 9 to 13 July, at the Horticultural Halls, London. Jarraud's participation in the MEPC, on the invitation of IMO Secretary-General Mr. Efthimios E. The theme was chosen to give IMO the opportunity to focus on its environmental work (both past and present) and thus intensify its efforts to add the Organization's contribution to that of the international community to protect and preserve the environment.

06 Jul 2007

IMO's MEPC to Meet

The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will consider current options to reduce air pollution from ships, when it meets for its 56th session from 9 to 13 July, at the Horticultural Halls, London. Mr. Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is scheduled to address the opening session (at 0930 on Monday 9 July) of the Committee, on the invitation of IMO Secretary-General Mr. Efthimios E. Mitropoulos. The Committee has a packed agenda, which also includes the further consideration of options to reduce air pollution from ships; the current draft of a proposed ship recycling convention…

20 Jul 2007

MEPC Progresses on Key Issues

The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) made progress on a packed agenda when it met for its 56th session from 9 to 13 July in London. Among a series of important decisions, it agreed to commission a study into the impact of proposed measures to reduce air pollution from ships. The Committee also further developed the proposed Ship Recycling Convention, discussed issues relating to the implementation of the 2004 Ballast Water Management Convention and adopted a number of amendments to the MARPOL Convention. Mr. Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) addressed the opening session of the Committee, at the invitation of IMO Secretary-General Mr. Efthimios E. Mitropoulos.