World Meteorological Day is on March 23:

Who predicts the weather ?

Each year, on March 23 , the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), its 189 members and the worldwide meteorological community celebrate World Meteorological Day around a chosen theme. This day commemorates the entry into force, on that date in 1950, of the WMO Convention creating the Organization. Subsequently, in 1951, WMO was designated a specialised agency of the United Nations System.

This year, the theme is "60 years of service for your safety and well-being".

You must be aware that the Meteorological Department plays the key role in providing us with all the important weather-related information. It is the officials in this department that predict the day-to-day weather and enlighten us about the changing weather patterns and climatic conditions in our country,

There are various types of sophisticated equipment used to monitor (on a daily or we could even say hourly basis), the atmosphere in order to observe the changes that occur and predict the weather. Some of you may have visited our Meteorological Department and witnessed how the officials study the weather patterns by sending a weather balloon up into the air and also by reading numerous data sent via the computers and other machinery linked to Meteorological Departments worldwide. If a tsunami,typhoon,cyclone or severe thunder storm is expected to affect our country who promptly informs the genenral public about it?....The Meteorological Department of course.

The staff attached to this department are busy all the time monitoring every change that takes place not only in the atmosphere in our country, but also in the countries in the vicinity so that they could always warn us , well ahead of time, of any impending danger due to such changes in the weather. When any earthquake activity takes place in the Indian Ocean or in any of the countries in the region, data is sent over to our country and the officials keep a watchful eye to see if the earthquake could result in a tsunami.

The Meteorological Department is an interesting place to visit and if you have not been to this place already, then make it a point to visit the Meteorological Department situated at Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo at a future date.