World Meteorological Day 2017 - Understanding clouds |24 March 2017

‘Understanding clouds’ is the chosen theme for this year’s World Meteorological Day celebrated yesterday. The theme highlights the enormous importance of clouds for weather, climate and water. Clouds are central to weather observations and forecasts. Clouds are also one of the key uncertainties in the study of climate change.

Seychelles needs to better understand how clouds affect the climate and how a changing climate will affect clouds. Clouds play a critical role in the water cycle and in shaping the distribution of water resources.

There is therefore an urgent need to talk more about the importance of clouds particularly to the younger generation who will be the ones to witness the transformation that clouds will bring in their lives over the years to come. For this reason the Seychelles Meteorological Authority (SMA) as its main activity to mark this year’s World Meteorological Day is launching an inter-school photo competition on clouds.

Clouds contribute to severe weather with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. Some of these severe weather phenomena are strong winds, excessive precipitation, thunderstorms and cyclones. In some countries bad weather is also associated with hail, waterspouts, tornadoes and snowstorms.

However, beside the negative and destructive aspect of clouds, they can also be fascinating to watch. The photo competition could therefore be an effective way to highlight the importance of clouds and to get the attention of the youth on climate change issues, particularly on actions that should be taken to minimise the impact on our lives.

Apart from the photo competition, the SMA is also launching a more long-term programme to make people understand meteorology better thus help to attract more young people especially Seychellois nationals to take up a career in this science and hence reduce the number of expatriates recruited at the SMA. Meteorology is about the weather, but it is not only about the weather. Essentially it is the study of the atmosphere, its physics, chemistry and dynamics, and the science is extended to include the direct effect of the atmosphere on the earth’s surface, the oceans and life in general. Meteorology is part of a broader picture, the study of the environment which includes the land and the ocean, as well as the atmosphere.

Although meteorology can provide a good career, SMA has found it hard to attract qualified people to join the service and to eventually occupy important positions at the institution. It is believed that the main reason people are not attracted to meteorology is the perception that meteorology is boring and that it is about someone appearing on TV every evening to give weather forecasts.

The TV weather presentation, better known as Meteo, that is aired every evening after the creole news, is only a small fraction of what goes on at the Seychelles Meteorological Authority’s headquarters based at the Seychelles International Airport, at Pointe Larue. Someone can start work at SMA as a simple meteorological technician but with good qualifications he or she can soon be sent overseas for further studies and qualify as a weather forecaster, hydro-meteorologist, agro-meteorologist or a marine meteorologist. A returning graduate in meteorology can also decide to concentrate on research and climate.

SMA has a big responsibility towards the aviation industry; aviation, probably more than any other mode of transportation, is greatly affected by weather. From thunderstorms to wind and fog as well as temperature and pressure extremes; every phase of flight has the potential to be impacted upon by weather. Aviation, with many daily flights, must deal with adverse weather regularly, and the cost is a significant budget item. Pilots need to know weather conditions for take-off, en-route and at their destination airfield, as well as possible diversions. The aviation industry is also becoming more environmentally conscious, and the price of fuel has also been driving more economical operations for many years. Hence forecasting upper-level winds has become essential to long haul operations, while accurate aerodrome forecasting is important to minimise costly diversions.

It is therefore very important that airports and aircraft receive the most up-to-date information on the weather. Airline pilots receive information from meteorological stations including SMA, to help them plan how much fuel to carry and which route they should fly. In other words, meteorological information helps pilots to have safe trips to their destination. So far more than 75% of the SMA annual budget goes towards aviation meteorology and it is for this reason that SMA is looking towards cost recovery for its aviation weather service as a source of financing.

From all these wonderful job opportunities in the field of meteorology it is clear that not enough has been done in the past to promote SMA and as a result caused some people to have the wrong perception about the institution. The World Meteorological Day is therefore a good opportunity to call upon serious and qualified people and also the Seychellois youth to join SMA.

Since it has become an autonomous entity last year, SMA is implementing a lot of projects whereby there are plenty of opportunities to expand. A new organisation structure has also been developed to cater for expansion and new services that the institution will provide under its new mandate. SMA urges people especially young people to come forward and be a part of it.

The World Meteorological Day is also an opportunity to address weather and climate related issues that are having major impacts around the world, threatening sustainable development, thus the very survival of mankind. This year's theme, ‘Understanding Clouds’, was also chosen to illustrate the reality of climate change. It highlights that, without urgent action to cut emissions, the trend of increasing temperatures and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events associated with violent clouds will accelerate.

It is therefore necessary to improve the capacities of SMA to provide better services to reduce disaster risks, and support national development and life supporting activities. SMA’s role is to move the institution from just an information provider to a centre of development planning and implementation. Climate change is already on our doorstep and if we are able to prepare our people for the impact of heavy rains on forecast, then we are already addressing the issue of our communities’ adaptation, through better decision making.

To all SMA staff and partners, congratulations on the occasion of the World Meteorological Day 2017. 

Contributed