Weather-Ready, Climate-Smart’ is the theme for World Meteorological Day being marked around the globe today.

As the UK’s national meteorological service, we’re at the forefront of weather and climate science, with wide-ranging capabilities and areas of cutting edge expertise used to support the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and meteorological services around the globe.

Weather-ready

Ultimately, the Met Office is about keeping people safe. Our National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS) is the flagship for both the public and those organisations that protect them, including national and local governments and the blue-light services. As well as helping individuals to decide whether they should travel or undertake an activity, we partner with emergency responders to plan ahead. It’s this proactive approach working together with the UK’s civil resilience community that helps protect life and property and ensure we are ‘weather ready’ during periods of severe weather like the recent heavy snow and cold temperatures.

From the first indications of a possible cold spell, highlighted to contingency planners at the end of January, to the NSWWS issued 5 days ahead of the first ‘beast from the east’, we issued over 300 briefings to the UK Government, Scottish Government and resilience groups around the country. The Met Office is operational 24/7, working around the clock helping both organisations and individuals prepare for extreme weather.

Climate-smart

The Met Office science programme performs world-class scientific research which is used to inspire, develop and deliver innovative weather and climate services. The science and advice we provide to Government, helps ensure policy and decision makers have up-to-date, robust evidence on which to base their decisions and is a key tool for building UK resilience in a changing climate.

Through our international work we help other countries develop climate services enabling them to build their own resilience, on both seasonal and long-term timescales. Increasingly, we assess and predict environmental risks, drawing together a thread that runs right through weather, climate and applied science, to deliver world-leading services. For example when assessing flooding risk, as we did in the National Flood Resilience Review (NFRR), we use model simulations to assess present-day risk, which then informs how that risk will change in future. This is all part of the ongoing challenge of translating weather and climate hazards into the impacts that matter for people, and is crucial to developing appropriate adaptation strategies.

Did you know?

Do you have any idea just how much work the Met Office does? We provide weather and climate-related services to the Armed Forces, other government departments, the public, civil aviation, shipping, industry, agriculture and commerce just to highlight a few areas.

Take a look at the infographic below, and download the interactive PDF to click on each tile to find out more.

World Met Day interactive PDF

World Met Day

World Meteorological Day takes place every year on 23 March and commemorates the coming into force on 23 March 1950 of the Convention establishing the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It showcases the essential contribution of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services to the safety and wellbeing of society and is celebrated with activities around the world.