The World Weather Information Service (WWIS) website operated by the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) received international recognition once again.  The WWIS website (http://worldweather.wmo.int/) was elected one of the finalists in this year's Stockholm Challenge and the Observatory was invited to participate at the award presentation ceremony to be held on 22 May 2008.

The Stockholm Challenge (http://www.stockholmchallenge.se/) is an international competition which is held once every two years.  The first competition was held in 1994 at Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.  The objective of the contest is to promote best practices in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in order to stimulate innovative ideas among all walks of life.  This year, there are altogether over 1,400 entries in six different categories.  The WWIS website was proud to be one of 10 finalists in the "Environment" category.

The WWIS website began operations in 2001 as a central portal for displaying official weather forecasts and climatological data provided by national meteorological services around the world.  Presently, WWIS has six different language versions with 118 participating countries/territories providing weather forecasts for 1,263 cities worldwide.

Those who are interested are welcome to browse the following webpages:
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2007/pre0111e.htm
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2006/pre0912e.htm
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2005/pre0323_1e.htm
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2004/pre1209e.htm
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2002/pre1209e.htm
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/news/2001/pre1208e.htm