Severe Weather Forecasting Programme is Initiated in Central America

Magazine Article
20 December 2024

Launch of the WMO Severe Weather Forecasting Programme in Central America

Approaching storm over the ocean with dramatic shelf cloud formation.

The WMO Severe Weather Forecasting Programme is being scaled up to cover more countries and subregions in support of the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative. SWFP already covers nine subregions of the world, including eastern Caribbean. SWFP-Central America, which launched in October, will be the first SWFP regional subprogramme to be implemented in Latin America. SWFP-Central America aims to strengthen the capacities of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama to provide improved forecasts and early warning services for heavy rainfall, severe thunderstorms, strong winds, high waves and heat intensity.

Implementation of SWFP-Central America was agreed in a technical planning meeting hosted by the Instituto Meteorologico Nacional (NCM) de Costa Rica in San José from 21–25 October. SWFP focal point/experts from Central America countries, the Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO) and the WMO World Meteorological Centres (WMCs) hosted by Canada and USA participated. WMO regional partners organizations, such as the Central American Regional Committee for Hydraulic Resources (CRRH) and CEPREDENAC also attended, while experts from further afield, such as European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF is a WMO World Meteorological Centre), MeteoFrance (Martinique), and CopernicusLAC, made online contributions.

The technical planning meeting made a comprehensive review of numerical modelling needs, satellite data processing and nowcasting capabilities, flash flood guidance systems, and impact-based forecast and warning services (IBFWS). NCM de Costa Rica will serve as the Regional Forecast Support Centre for SWFP-Central America and will be supported by the Environmental Observatory of El Salvador as a back-up regional centre.

An action plan will be consolidated to start implementation of the programme in 2025. The SWFP-Central America is being implemented in collaboration with WMO Members and with support from development partners.

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