Tuesday 25 / March / 2025
Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman marked the World Meteorological Day which falls on 23 March every year.
This year’s World Metrological Day is themed “Closing the early warning gap together”. It aims to contribute to minimizing the effects resulting from cyclones, storms and floods.
This year's celebration is being held under the theme "Together to Close the Early Warning Gap," to mitigate the impacts of tropical cyclones, severe storms, and floods. The World Meteorological Organization recently confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year since records began, as changes in the environment led to more extreme weather events.
In her remarks on the occasion, Professor Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said that over the past 75 years, we have contributed billions of dollars to the global economy, saved billions more by avoiding economic losses caused by weather, climate, and water-related risks, and saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
She noted that the World Meteorological Organization is the backbone and central nervous system of global weather forecasting.
For his part, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the UN Early Warnings for All initiative aims to protect communities everywhere through a warning system by 2027, and the world must unite and urgently intensify its efforts and investments to achieve this goal.
In the next phase, the initiative will focus on expanding the scope of early warning systems for all by building on lessons learned, expanding support to include additional countries in addition to the thirty countries on which the initiative initially focused, strengthening partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donors, development banks, and climate funds to increase resources and strengthen cooperation, enhancing regional capacities through collaboration with specialised centres and regional partners to ensure lasting impact, and fostering a sense of national ownership through country leadership in implementation and ensuring long-term sustainability.
The initiative seeks to bridge the gap by funding early warning and ensuring that every country has the resources needed to build resilience and protect communities from the increasing impacts of extreme weather and climate change.
Since joining the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1975, the Sultanate of Oman has been among the active countries striving for continuous and fruitful cooperation with the organisation and its regional centres for exchanging information and initiating the development of its own forecasting and monitoring equipment to enhance its meteorological capabilities and benefit from international cooperation in this field.
The National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre was established in 2004 and officially launched in 2015. It is the first national centre to provide alerts and warnings for several natural hazards in the region, such as tsunami waves resulting from marine earthquakes, hurricanes and tropical conditions, and flash floods resulting from weather conditions. Alerts are issued and disseminated through media channels and various social media platforms to reach all segments of society.
The centre aims to provide early warning services and alerts regarding weather and climate hazards to the community and stakeholders from the government, military, and private sectors.
It also provides alerts and weather bulletins to the aviation sector and all civil, military, and oil airports in the Sultanate of Oman, ensuring and achieving the highest levels of air navigation safety and security in the Sultanate of Oman.
It also provides alerts and warnings regarding tsunami and marine earthquake hazards.
The centre performs a variety of tasks, including 24-hour monitoring of weather conditions and natural hazards, issuing necessary warnings and alerts to residents and relevant authorities, and coordinating with government agencies to take preventive measures.
The centre relies on numerous technologies used to monitor natural hazards, including the latest systems and technical equipment. These include 80 integrated meteorological stations distributed across the Sultanate of Oman, weather radar systems, marine radars, satellites, numerical models, and advanced meteorological stations to monitor and analyse weather phenomena.
The centre sends emergency warnings to citizens and residents via the Oman Meteorological Department's website, text messages, audio and visual media, smartphone applications, and social media platforms.
It also cooperates with government agencies and international organisations to address natural hazards. These include, at the local level, the National Emergency Management Committee, and at the international level, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, to ensure effective responses to hazards.
The National Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre relies on established operational procedures when issuing all alerts. These procedures are used to manage weather conditions and activate the national emergency management system.
Accurate warnings are issued, and this is done in coordination with the relevant authorities to take preventive measures, such as evacuating areas at risk, if necessary.
The centre has succeeded in mitigating damage from natural hazards by minimising human and material losses during tropical cyclones such as Cyclone Shaheen, by issuing early warnings and providing continuous data to citizens, residents, and decision-makers.
