World Meteorological Organization

Hello! We are the World Meteorological Organization, and you can call us by our shorter name, the WMO. We are a special part of a very big team called the United Nations. Our main job is to help countries from all over the world work together. What do we work on? We study the weather, the climate, and water all across our planet. We were created a long time ago, on March 23rd, 1950. The reason we were started is very important: to make sure that countries can share information about the Earth’s air and water. When we share what we know, we can help keep people everywhere safe from dangerous weather.

One of our most famous jobs is helping to name big, powerful storms like hurricanes. When a storm has a name, like Hurricane Alex or Hurricane Betty, it is much easier for everyone to talk about it. It helps you and your family know exactly which storm the news is talking about. This way, people can follow the storm’s path and have time to prepare and stay safe. Naming storms helps avoid confusion and makes communication clear when it matters most.

But our work is about more than just naming storms. We also help countries build special systems that give early warnings. An early warning is like a heads-up that something is coming. We help warn people about floods, which happen when there is too much water, and droughts, which happen when there is not enough. We also help with warnings for heatwaves, when it gets dangerously hot. To do this, we have to watch our planet very carefully. We look at the Earth’s atmosphere, which is all the air around us, and the oceans. Watching them closely helps scientists understand how our planet's climate is changing over time.

Today, we are a huge team made up of 193 different countries and territories. We all work together by sharing the information we collect. This information comes from many places. We get it from weather stations on land, from special equipment on ships sailing on the oceans, and from satellites that look down on the Earth from space. When we put all of this information together, it's like putting together the pieces of a giant puzzle. This teamwork helps us make weather forecasts much more accurate. Better forecasts help protect people, keep farms safe, and make sure cities are prepared for any kind of weather. We continue to work together every day to understand our amazing planet and make the world safer for everyone.