World Meteorological Organization announced the showcase of the World Weather Information Service in Shanghai World Expo

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) publicized the future version of the World Weather Information Service (WWIS) website which was developed by the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) on behalf of WMO. The website is showcased in the MeteoWorld Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 that runs from May to October 2010.Details can be found in the WMO website http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/news_members/WWIS_en.html.

This brand-new version of WWIS is Google Earth enabled. It allows users to freely move around a virtual globe by changing the viewing angle and position. It features a versatile "fly-over" function to any part of the world and a quick search function.

The Secretary-General of WMO Michel Jarraud said, "The new version of WWIS has strengthened our capability to serve the users even better through a modernized website that is attractive and allows easy access to information and forecasts through an easy to use Google application". He thanked HKO for coordinating and maintaining WWIS on behalf of WMO.

The WWIS Internet website (http://worldweather.wmo.int/) was established in 2000 to provide authoritative and reliable weather information of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) around the world to all Internet users. In 2008, WWIS won the prestigious Stockholm Challenge Award in the Environment Category. The Stockholm Challenge is a major international IT competition and some IT people label it as the Oscar Award for the IT sector.

At present, 124 WMO members provide official weather forecasts in eight different languages, for more than 1,300 cities on the website. Climatological data for the cities are also provided to help users in planning their travel months in advance. Following the hyperlinks on the website, users can also visit the websites of the NMHSs to find out more details on their individual forecasts. WWIS now registers more than 10 million page visits every month on average.

MeteoWorld is the first-ever meteorological pavilion in the 159-year history of World Expo. WWIS is showcased as part of the World Expo Meteorological Office in the MeteoWorld Pavilion, which is the operational platform for weather forecasting and service delivery in support of the World Expo.

The future version of WWIS can be accessed by clicking the banner at the top on the front page of WWIS website (http://worldweather.wmo.int/), or directly via the link: http://worldweather.wmo.int/globe/.