International co-operation

The weather does not recognise international borders. In the strictest sense, if a thunderstorm takes place somewhere on earth, sooner or later it will have an influence on our weather here. Therefore, weather data must be exchanged across international borders and so that everybody knows what the others are talking about, there have to be conditions that apply all around the world.

The World Meteorological Organisation organises the exchange of weather data
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is a specialised body within the United Nations (UN) with its headquarters in Geneva. It was founded on 23 March 1950 as the successor to the International Meteorological Organisation, which for its part came into being in 1873.
The WMO has 181 member countries worldwide. The regular annual budget (2004) of the WMO is CHF 62.5 million, with Switzerland's contribution standing at CHF 780,225 or 1.25 %. Altogether, the WMO employs a workforce of 258 people. With its activities, the WMO makes important contributions to the safety of life and property. It encourages the socio-economic development of nations and creates important conditions for the protection of the environment. The WMO develops its activities in the form of programmes. These programmes create the foundations for international co-operation in the setting up and maintenance of meteorological and hydrological measuring and observation networks, guarantee the rapid exchange of data, ensure the standardisation of weather observations and promote the training of meteorologists. In addition, WMO programmes cater for the further development of the application possibilities of meteorology, and in particular of weather forecasts, e.g. for aviation, agriculture, meteorological warnings, etc. It is estimated that the annual cost of worldwide meteorology runs to CHF 5 billion, but on the other hand, the economic benefit provided by the WMO with its networking is CHF 25 to 50 billion.

Just as important as the international exchange of weather data is technical and scientific co-operation. Switzerland itself benefits especially from joint programmes with other weather services.
For example, it is very expensive to operate weather satellites. Therefore, 18 European countries have got together and founded the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. Switzerland benefits 100 % but only has to contribute just over 3 % to the costs.
Digital models are used to simulate on a computer the way the weather is going to develop over the next few days. Global models are further developed in intensive research work, but are expensive because of all the computer resources required. Therefore, the countries of Europe have also co-operated in this field and jointly operate the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in the English town of Reading. The computer continuously analyses the data from the observation networks of the weather services and then establishes the weather for every point on earth twice a day. If the laws of physics are applied to this initial situation, it is possible to calculate for the next ten days, where in the world low pressure areas will occur, where they will persist and lead to rain, where the wind is blowing, where the pressure is rising and where high pressure areas will bring warmer conditions. Weather maps that are valid for a particular day in the future are the result of this digital forecast. They form the basis for the weather forecasts issued by the meteorologists.
Western European weather services work together in the interest groups EUMETNET and ECOMET on further joint programmes, for example in the area of the consolidation of European weather radar systems, weather observations using instruments in civil aircraft, the measurement of air humidity with the runtime of GPS signals, the measurement of vertical temperature distribution with microwaves, the cross-border relaying of warnings, etc.

International co-operation in the field of meteorology goes back as far as the 19th century. If it were not for international co-operation between various countries and the state-run weather services, there would be no warning of thunderstorms, no newspapers would be able to publish weather reports and no TV weather presenter would be able to do their important job. MeteoSwiss represents the interests of Switzerland in the most significant international organisations and therefore fulfils a very important role.