Petteri Taalas, the Director-General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), has been appointed as the next Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
His four-year term starts on 1 January 2016. His predecessor, Michel Jarraud, has held the post since January 2004.
Mr Taalas obtained the required two-thirds majority in a vote held on 4 June at the World Meteorological Congress, which is taking place in Geneva from 25 May to 12 June.
“The importance of the WMO and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services is growing due to the higher number of disasters hitting all parts of the world,” a WMO press release quotes him as saying.
Mr Taalas added that proper early warning systems were essential to protect human life and property and that he would work for a service-oriented WMO.
The Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications, Anne Berner, described the appointment as a "significant achievement for Finland".
"This demonstrates that Finnish top expertise is in high regard internationally and illustrates the extensive, high-standard work carried out by the Finnish Meteorological Institute both internationally and nationally," an FMI press release quotes her as saying.
ECMWF works closely with the WMO, with which it has a formal co-operation agreement. The WMO has designated ECMWF as a:
- Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) for medium-range forecasts;
- Global Producing Centre for Long-range Forecasts (GPC);
- Lead Centre for Deterministic NWP Verification (LC-DNV);
- Lead Centre for upper-air observation monitoring.
ECMWF also contributes to the WMO Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP) as a Global Centre, and it participates in WMO committees, working groups and expert groups, especially on issues relating to the World Weather Watch.
Image based on an original photo by Nina Kellokoski