World Meteorological Day

Heatwaves, air pollution, disease outbreaks, food insecurity and health system disruption - climate and health are interlinked. At the World Meteorological Organization, we’re working with Members and partners to bridge climate science and health services , so communities can predict, prepare for, and prevent climate-related health threats . For every risk, there is a science-based solution, and here’s what WMO is delivering: Heat-health warning systems Sand and dust storms warning systems Health surveillance systems Agrometeorological services for food security Climate-resilience healthcare

  The primary objective of irrigated agriculture is to produce crops with the help of irrigation . This field study was conducted during the 2017 and 2018 cropping seasons at the experimental farmland of Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia. The actual crop evapotranspiration and crop coefficient for the haricot bean were determined from nonweighing lysimeter studies. The soil–water balance approach was applied to compute the actual crop evapotranspiration of the haricot bean, whereas the reference evapotranspiration was computed with the help of the Penman–Monteith method. The crop coefficient was obtained from the ratio between the measured crop evapotranspiration and the reference evapotranspiration. The seasonal crop evapotranspiration for the haricot bean was 493.0 and 410.1mm during the experimental period of 2017 and 2018, respectively. The mean crop evapotranspiration for the haricot bean over the two experimental years was 451.6 mm. The mean locally produced act...

  This study examines trends of maximum and minimum temperatures, as well as precipitation , in the Eastern Free State Region (EFSR) of South Africa. Climate Explorer was used to obtain annual maximum and minimum temperatures, and average monthly precipitation data for the period 1960–2019. The Mann Kendall (MK), innovative trend analysis (ITA) Test, and Sen’s estimate were employed to determine the nature of the trends and their significance, while a questionnaire survey was conducted to determine the perceptions of local communities about climate trends in the region . The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was computed for the October to December (OND) and January to March (JFM) sub seasons and for the ONDJFM in R-Studio 1.1.1717 software using monthly precipitation data for the 1961–2019 period. The results indicate a significant rise in the long-term annual mean maximum and mean minimum temperatures, which have increased by 0.034 and 0.011°C/annum, respectively. Consistent...

  The high vulnerability of regions that predominantly rely on rain-fed agriculture to climate change and variability underscores the importance of understanding adaptation responses as a foundation for designing targeted interventions. This study investigates microlevel climate change adaptation strategies and factors determining such choices of smallholder farmers in the Kembata Tembaro Zone, southern Ethiopia. It employed a convergent parallel mixed-method research design, incorporating quantitative data collected through household surveys of 364 randomly selected smallholder farmers across diverse agro-ecological zones. This was complemented by qualitative data obtained through interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs). A multinomial logit (MNL) regression model was used to analyze the determinants of the farmers’ adaptation decisions. Nearly all respondents perceived an increase in temperature, consistent with observed trends. However, the farmers’ perception of declining ...

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) releases an annual "State of the Climate in Africa" report, providing key information on climate patterns and their impacts across the continent. The 2024 report, released in May 2025, highlights the intensifying effects of extreme weather and climate change, including rising temperatures, sea levels, and widespread marine heatwaves. These changes are significantly impacting agriculture, food and water security, health, and displacement, while also affecting socio-economic development. 2024 was one of the warmest years on record for Africa, with some regions experiencing their hottest or second-hottest year. Abnormally high sea surface temperatures were observed in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, with widespread marine heatwaves impacting the continent. Africa experienced a range of extreme weather events, including severe flooding and prolonged droughts, impacting lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. Extreme weather ev...

Cloud is an important factor affecting climate change , playing a crucial role in controlling the Earth’s energy and water cycle. In this study, total cloud cover (TCC) from the fifth-generation atmospheric reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA5) and the International Satellite Cloud Climate Project H-series (ISCCP) were compared with those from the Advanced Geosynchronous Radiation Imager (AGRI) aboard Fengyun4A (FY4A) and ground observations (OBS), revealing the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of TCC in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang), northwest China. The findings indicate that the interannual fluctuations in the annual mean TCC from OBS in Xinjiang exhibit no discernible trend, while those based on ERA5 and ISCCP demonstrate a decline. The TCC from FY4A and ISCCP shows a distribution pattern of high in the south and low in the north, whereas the opposite is true for that from OBS and ERA5. For all ground observation statio...

  The temporal and spatial rainfall variability impacts water resource management, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem health in river basins. This study utilized 44 years of daily rainfall data (1976–2020) at 27 stations across the Malwathu Oya river basin, Sri Lanka, to investigate the temporal and spatial variability of rainfall in the basin and identify possible impacts of climate change on rainfall variability and trends . Standardized anomaly, coefficient of variation (CV), monotonic trends of rainfall and dry days, and the onset and retreat of the cropping season, Maha were computed for the last four decades, and the impacts of climate change were evaluated by checking the differences in the variables before and after the year 2000 using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The annual rainfall of the Malwathu Oya river basin shows a significant increase, primarily contributed by the upstream region. The study identified the higher variability of the onset of the Maha seasonal...