WMO Climate Monitoring Capabilities and Strategy for Development

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WMO Climate Monitoring CapabilitiesandStrategy
for Development

• Thomas C. Peterson
• National Climatic Data Center, NOAA
• Asheville, NC, USA
• and
• Omar Baddour
• World Meteorological Organization
• Geneva, Switzerland

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Outline

• Why Climate Monitoring is important
• WMOs Climate Monitoring activities
• Strategies for developing and improving Climate
  Monitoring capabilities
• Discussion

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Consider a city running low on drinking water
during a drought

• If you were in charge of the citys long-term
  water planning, what would you do?

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The answer depends on climatic conditions

• Is this is a once in 200 years drought or a once
  in 20 years drought?
• Do long-term data (and model projections)
  indicate that droughts of this magnitude are
  tending to become more frequent or less frequent?
• How could you possibly make the right decision
  without climate monitoring information?

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Climate Variability and Change

• Impacts numerous societal, economic and
  environmental aspects
• Safety, health, food security, tourism, energy,
  etc.
• Therefore, coping and adapting to these changes
  requires understanding their causes, magnitudes
  and extent, and to predict their impacts.

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Climate Monitoring

• Provides information needed for effective
  planning
• As well as for operations to respond to extreme
  events

WMO Bulletin April 2008
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WMO Climate Monitoring Activities
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WMO AnnualState of the Global Climate

• Since 1993
• In collaboration with the WMO Commission for
  Climatology
• Authoritative yet simple
• E.g., 13 heavily illustrated pages

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WMO also collaborates on the larger Bulletin of
the American Meteorological Societys Annual
State of the Climate

• Identifying potential authors
• Encouraging interactions

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CCl Expert Team on Climate Monitoring

• Including the use of Satellite and marine data
  and products

• Focused on what a small international team of
  experts could provide any NMHS trying to improve
  their climate monitoring

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Expert Team Actions

• Started out by providing information on Climate
  Monitoring to WMO Member States.
• Web site with climate monitoring relevant links
• A pamphlet to provide outreach to the community
• Coordinating translation of the BAMS State of the
  Climate into Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, French and
  Russian so more people could read it
• Publicizing important information
• Such as Guidelines for plant phonological
  observations
• Writing an article for the WMO Bulletin

WMO Bulletin April 2008
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By the time the 4 years ended

• Focus evolved towards building and formalizing
  interactions
• Enhancing collaboration between major global
  climate monitoring centers
• Capacity building collaboration between a
  satellite agency and an individual NMHS
• Lesson learned
• Interactions between scientists is the key first
  step towards improving climate monitoring

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Strategy for Improving and Developing Climate
Monitoring
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The Key is Participation

• Until one attempts to monitor the climate it is
  difficult to appreciate the many different things
  that need to come together in Climate Monitoring

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The Importance of Historical Data

• It is the long-term data that allow one to put
  current conditions into perspective
• Rescue and digitize old records

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The Importance of Homogeneity

• Artificial discontinuities in the data can paint
  an erroneous climate picture

• Rize, Turkey
• Discontinuity verified by metadata indicating
  that station relocated in 1995

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The Importance of Cross-Border Verification

• Verification by seeing how local conditions fit
  into global and regional patterns

• Highlights the importance of internationally
  sharing data and information

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The Importance of Daily Data

• Cant globally monitoring daily temperature
  extremes
• Yet extremes are more societal relevant than
  monthly average
• Heat wave related to increased mortality
• Cold extremes related to agricultural damages
• The same is true for precipitation extremes
• Long-term droughts can be monitored
• But heavy flood producing precipitation events
  often can not be monitored globally and put into
  accurate historical perspective

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The Importance of Information, not just Data

• Even where data are not shared,
  other information can be
• Indices of extremes coordinated by the joint
  CCl/CLIVAR/JCOMM Expert Team on Climate Change
  Detection and Indices
• A challenge to address in near real-time
• Reporting climate conditions in the annual State
  of the Climate report is enhancing cross-border
  exchange of information and collaboration on
  climate monitoring.
• RCCs could play an important role

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Hands-on Workshops are an Effective Strategy for
Development

• Not just listening and talking but doing also
• Photos from Caribbean Climate Extremes workshop

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Summary

• Real-time global, regional and local climate
  monitoring poses tremendous challenges
• A complex and multifaceted problem
• Only by attempting climate monitoring can a full
  appreciation of all the processes come together
• Regional workshops can jump start that process
• Society needs this information to help guide
  adaptation to climate change

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Those are our ideas on how to develop climate
monitoring. What are yours?