Day marked under slogan 'Early Warning and Early Action'
• Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous: Anticipating climate phenomena and providing accurate data contribute to saving our planet
Abu Dhabi-UAE: 23 March, 2022 – National Center of Meteorology (NCM) marks World Meteorological Day, which falls on March 23 every year.
World Meteorological Day is celebrated this year under the slogan 'Early Warning and Early Action'.
His Excellency Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, Director-General of the National Center of Meteorology and President of the WMO Regional Association (Asia), said: “The celebration of World Meteorological Day 2022 under the theme “Early Warning and Early Action,” reflects the importance of keeping pace with climatic phenomena that affect social stability and security, and significantly affect the world's vital sectors. It is an opportunity to highlight the role of meteorological institutions in enhancing forecasting concepts, anticipating the risks of weather phenomena, climate change and water scarcity, and providing information that contributes to saving lives and facilitating livelihoods.”
His Excellency added: 'Change and development are characteristics of life. Modern technology has moved us to a new era that transcends borders and geography, so we have to take the initiative. What our national institutions have in terms of human and technical capacity, and advanced infrastructure, qualifies us to enhance our role in raising awareness of the dangers of natural disasters, and to make optimal use of the data provided by radars and satellites, and to improve prevention, preparedness and response measures in order to benefit humanity.”
His Excellency stressed that the National Center of Meteorology is keen to establish the rules of positive and constructive cooperation based on partnership, and awareness of the developments of natural phenomena that may threaten human societies, with all authorities concerned with maintaining social security.
His Excellency pointed out that the Center, with its advanced infrastructure that includes a national radar network, and a network of automatic stations monitoring all weather elements around the clock, works in cooperation with these authorities to proactively educate the UAE society about climate phenomena and changes, and this infrastructure is supervised by specialized experts who are committed to sustaining and investing it properly.
In his message on this occasion, Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of World Meteorological Organization (WMO), highlighted that, the top priority of WMO is to protect lives and livelihoods from weather, climate and water extremes. Every minute of every day of the year. I am therefore very happy that the theme of World Meteorological Day 2022 is “Early Warning and Early Action.”
‘It celebrates the great achievements of national meteorological and hydrological services in improved early warning systems. It also highlights the vital work of the disaster risk reduction community in making sure that these early warnings lead to early action,’ He added
‘But we cannot be complacent. We face many challenges, especially in making sure that early warnings reach the last mile to the most vulnerable who need them most.’
Taalas stated that ‘Climate change is already very visible through more extreme weather in all parts of the world. Last year WMO published a report on disaster statistics for the past 50 years. It showed that there were more than 11 000 disasters linked to weather, climate and water-related hazards, almost equal to one disaster per day. There were 2 million deaths – or 115 per day. The number of disasters has increased five-fold in the past 50 years. And the economic cost has soared.’
He concluded that ‘WMO’s vision is that “by 2030, we see a world where all nations, especially the most vulnerable, are more resilient to the socioeconomic consequences of extreme weather, climate, water and other environmental events. Early warnings work. They must work for everyone. They must lead to early action.’
