It is encouraging in 2009 as more and more national meteorological services joined the World Weather Information Service (WWIS). After the Iraqi Meteorological Organization and the Afghan Meteorological Authority, the Hydrometeorological Service of Guyana in South America joined the WWIS in December, becoming the 123rd Member of WWIS. Altogether, 10 places of Guyana have been added to the list of cities with official weather forecasts.

On 28 August 2009, the Servizio Meteorologico dell'Aeronautica Militare Italiana, the national weather service of Italy and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched the Italian version of the World Weather Information Service website (http://wwis.meteoam.it/).

For details, please refer to the press release issued by the Hong Kong Observatory.

It is an encouraging start to 2009 as more and more national meteorological services joined the World Weather Information Service (WWIS). In February, the Iraqi Meteorological Organization and the Afghan Meteorological Authority participated to become the 120th and 121th Members of WWIS respectively. Altogether, they have added 8 places to the list of cities with official weather forecasts.

On 23 March 2009, the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), the national weather service of Germany and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched the German version of the World Weather Information Service website (http://www.wwis.dwd.de).

For details, please refer to the press releases issued by Germany and the Hong Kong Observatory.

On 31 January 2007, the Meteo France of France and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched the French version of the World Weather Information Service website (http://www.meteo.fr/wwis/).

For details, please refer to the press releases issued by the WMO and the Hong Kong Observatory.

On 12 September 2006, the National Institute of Meteorology of Spain (INM) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched the Spanish version of the World Weather Information Service website (http://wwis.inm.es/).

For details, please refer to the press releases issued by the WMO and the Hong Kong Observatory.

In response to the earlier suggestions from the WWIS participating Members and the public, the WWIS city forecast pages have been enhanced to include a map function for each of the city available to this website (beta version).

Obviously, the city map is intended to let you know the approximate location of the city on the world map. In addition, a city photograph function has also been added to provide visual information about the city. City photographs would be posted on this website in phase or as soon as they are received from Members. Simply click the map or photo icon at the top right corner of the respective city forecast pages would take you there. Have a nice time of a virtual tour to these cities. Comments are welcome.

The web site on worldwide official weather forecasts, World Weather Information Service (WWIS)<www.worldweather.org>, starts formal operation today (23 March 2005) after a trial period of over two years.

At the 13^th Session of the Commission for Basic Systems at St. Petersburg, 23 February - 3 March 2005, the Commission approved to turn the pilot project into an operational component of the Public Weather Services Programme of WMO and that the current host Members, viz. China; Hong Kong, China; Macao, China; and Oman, would continue to maintain the Chinese, English, Portuguese and Arabic versions of the WWIS web site respectively.

Mr. Michel Jarraud, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), visited the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) today (9 December 2004) and celebrated with the Observatory staff the achievement of having more than 1,000 city weather forecasts on WMO World Weather Information Service (WWIS) Web site which is hosted and operated by HKO.

He presented letters of thanks to Observatory staff who had contributed to the development and operation of the two world weather web sites of WMO, namely the WWIS and the Severe Weather Information Centre (SWIC).

"Official Observations. Official Forecasts." - to realize our commitment on the provision of "Official Observations", this "Official Observations" web page have been developed to display the global current weather observations. When you entered the first page, you would see a global view of cloudiness and rain. Click on the world map to zoom in for detailed viewing.

Severe Weather Information Centre (SWIC) web site aims at providing dynamic information on the latest forecasts and warnings to the public. This new web pages "Heavy Rain / Snow page" display all the heavy rain / snow weather reports globally on a world map. Enlarged display for each region bounded by the grids is available for easy and more detailed viewing.