Arab meteorology meeting wraps up

The 30th round of meetings of the permanent Arab committee for Meteorology ended here on Thursday with the emphasis on upgrading training for prospective Arab meteorologists. Participants in the meetings, which stretched for four days, agreed in a final statement they issued today to hold the next committee's meeting in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in April 2015. They agreed to speed up intra-Arab cooperation in weather forecasting with the aim of improving quality and efficiency, and doing that by applying parameters set by the International Meteorological Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization, said the final statement. Furthermore, they concurred to boost the capacity of departments of media in Arab meteorological organizations or institutions with the ultimate goal to establish firm ties between them and the public since the latter relies wholly on these organizations to obtain their daily weather forecasts. They came in favor of installing a media liaison in these organizations to be official spokespersons for them and a bona fide conduit for accurate information put out by the meteorological organizations, said the statement. To that end, the participants agreed to hold the fourth meeting of the committee's media improvement team in Qatar next May. They also welcomed the cooperation between the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the International Meteorological Organization in preparing a draft proposal for the establishment of a regional forum for weather forecasting across the Arab world. Heads of Arab National Meteorological organizations and agencies from 16 Arab countries and representatives from 10 Arab, regional and international organizations took part in this gathering.