Reprint 474

The World Meteorological Organization Pilot Websites:

"Severe Weather Information Centre" and

"World Weather Information Service"

H.K. Lam

Typhoon Committee Annual Review 2001

The World Meteorolo“Severe Wea

“World Weat

Director of thPermanent Representati

Vice-President of WM

Typhoon Com

1. Introduction

Weather information

travelling public and by the in

Internet which carries a diversi

of information service provide

many governments to question

National Meteorological and H

of the World Meteorological O

developing countries, have e

non-professional information

weather services provided by N

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counteract the many unofficia

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weather information on the we

gical Organization Pilot Websites: ther Information Centre”

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Dr H K Lam e Hong Kong Observatory ve of Hong Kong, China with WMO

O Regional Association II (Asia)

mittee Annual Review 2001

is a much sought-after commodity by the

ternational media. The rapidly expanding

ty of weather information from a wide array

rs often bewilders the users. It also induces

the amount of resources required to support

ydrological Services (NMHSs). Members

rganization (WMO), especially those from

xpressed concerns about the impact of

sources on the public’s recognition of the

MHSs.

mmunity needs a collective official voice to

l and often amateurish sources of weather

An authentic and authoritative source of

b with the full backing of WMO Members

will be a strategic step forward to elevate the profile and visibility of the

public weather services operated by NMHSs to the international arena, to

bring about the appreciation that reliable official forecasts do come from

those who operate a highly regulated network of weather observations

under the auspices of WMO.

2. Background

The Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) endorsed the

establishment of two pilot projects to promote official weather warnings

and information on the Internet through the setting up of two WMO

websites, now dubbed as “Severe Weather Information Centre” (SWIC) and

“World Weather Information Service” (WWIS) [1,2]. The objectives of the

two websites are to meet the demand for weather information worldwide

and to enhance the profile of NMHSs through the provision of basic

meteorological data, severe weather warnings and forecasts, as well as

climatological information [3]. Hong Kong, China, has been tasked by the

CBS to take the lead in developing and hosting the pilot websites. At the

initial stage, both websites are operated in English and to be launched in the

form of an operational trial.

The focus of the SWIC website is severe weather warnings issued

by WMO Members. As a start, the pilot website provides official

information on tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific and the South

China Sea. Members of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee are

participating in the project.

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The WWIS website provides climatological weather information

for cities in phase I of its operation. It will eventually deliver forecasts

issued by the NMHSs concerned up to a few days ahead. In this connection,

Hong Kong, China, also serves as the collecting centre for weather forecast

bulletins submitted by WMO Members. The bulletins are processed and

the forecasts are posted on the website. Collated forecast information will

also be distributed to WMO Members.

3. SWIC Website (http://severe.worldweather.org)

The pilot project demonstrates the concept of a centralized source

for the media to access official warnings and information issued by NMHSs.

Operational trial of the website commenced in September 2001. It contains

the advisories issued by Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre

(RSMC) Tokyo - Typhoon Centre and official warnings issued by NMHSs.

Eight Typhoon Committee Members are contributing dynamically updated

tropical cyclone and weather information for the website.

The information presented on the website includes tropical

cyclone position, intensity, forecast track, warnings, satellite images, etc.

For participating Members with existing websites, tropical cyclone

warnings and related links are dynamically updated through the provision

of formatted text files placed on their websites. For Members without a

website, relevant information is sent to Hong Kong, China via the GTS.

Messages received are posted automatically with minimal manual

processing. Figure 1 shows a snapshot of the content page of the SWIC

website.

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4. WWIS Website (http://www.worldweather.org)

The WWIS website is being implemented in phases. Phase I

consists of static pages containing climatological information and links to

Members’ websites. The name and logo of the participating NMHSs

providing the information are prominently displayed. Hyperlinks to the

NMHSs’ websites, if available, are also included. Operational trial of

Phase I was launched in December 2001.

Phase II of the project will include forecasts of selected cities a

few days ahead. Operational trial of Phase II will be formally launched at

the end of 2002. As the year progresses, forecasts from Members will be

added to the website as they become available. A sample web page in the

WWIS website is shown in Figure 2.

To prepare for Phase II of the project, participants are invited to

send their city forecasts in simple text or in code format. In view of the

diversity of capabilities and practices among WMO Members, a matching

variety of communication means is provided to facilitate the exchange of

forecast information (Figure 3). Participants may submit their city forecasts

through GTS, AFTN, or via the Internet by email or FTP to Hong Kong,

China. Forecasts in the recommended message format, once received, will

be automatically updated on the corresponding Member’s web page in the

website. Some degree of quality control will be exercised and messages

will be flagged if manual intervention appears to be necessary.

98 Members, that is about half of the WMO membership, have

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indicated intention to participate. A total of 539 cities from 149 WMO

Members are represented in the website in terms of climatological

information. Forecasts for 306 cities from 31 participating Members are

available in the website by May 2002 (Figure 4).

5. Technical Implementation of the Websites

A computer system is set up to support the operations of the two

websites. A schematic diagram of the system is given in Figure 5. Two

identical web servers forming a cluster are used to host the contents of the

two websites. They can handle about 5,000 requests simultaneously. The

capacity of the cluster can easily be increased by adding more servers. The

resilience of the websites is achieved by a pair of load balancers that

constantly monitor the serviceability of the servers and automatically

redistribute traffic where the situation warrants. To ensure data integrity

across the web servers, web pages of the websites are stored in a Network

Attached Storage (NAS) device which is a high availability data storage

device and has automatic data backup capability.

The system’s backend is connected to the Hong Kong

Observatory’s (HKO) computer system via a dedicated T1 (1.54 Mbps)

leased line. The front-end connection to the Internet backbone has a

maximum capacity of 60 Mbps. Both connections are protected by

firewalls as well as other system security tools.

A relational database management system is used for the

processing of weather information. A two-tier implementation, with the

master database located at the HKO headquarters and the slave on the web

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server, is adopted. Data replication is automatically done between the

databases.

The data processing system of the WWIS website is implemented

based on the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) which is the standard for

data exchange on the World Wide Web. Forecasts submitted are converted

into XML format for further processing and posting onto the web pages. In

the future, the data processing system will also be used to allow Members to

retrieve forecasts available on the server.

Hong Kong, China, has put in substantial resources to support the

implementation of the two websites. A project team has been set up within

the Hong Kong Observatory to oversee liaison, system design and product

development. Two computer programmers are hired specifically to handle

data processing and automation tasks. A summary of the resources

provided by Hong Kong, China, in the development and management of the

two pilot websites as well as the estimated resources required in the future is

given in Figure 6.

6. General Observations

Visit statistics is a good measure to gauge the popularity of the

websites. By the end of May 2002, a total of about 445,000 page visits to

the two websites were recorded since their inception (Figure 7). It is an

encouraging sign that the websites are beginning to help promote Members’

visibility in the Internet community.

Taking an incremental approach in building up the websites

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appears to be an effective way to promote the exchange of weather

information on the Internet. In fact, through the development and liaison

process, a number of NMHSs gain acquaintance with new technology,

realize the benefits of being represented on the World Wide Web and start to

build their own websites.

A key factor to the smooth implementation of the two websites so

far is the active involvement of participating Members. This is to a large

extent facilitated by the obvious benefits to all parties concerned. Members

would become more visible to the international communities. Internet users

looking for detailed weather information would be able to get them by

following the hyperlinks to the participants’ websites. Finally, Members

would also have a convenient and reliable source of official weather

information of cities overseas to meet the demand from their own travelling

population as well as the local media.

By taking part in these two pilot projects, we would together

remind the world that we who make the standardized weather observations

under the WMO banner are in the best position to provide the public

weather services. In return, the NMHSs would raise their profiles, gain

recognition from the international community as well as secure more

support from their respective governments in the maintenance and

development of meteorological operations.

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References

1. World Meteorological Organization 1999: Abridged Final Report

with Resolutions, Thirtheenth World Meteorological Congress.

WMO-No. 902, 38.

2. World Meteorological Organization, 2001: Hong Kong

Observatory and WMO launch Trial Web Site

WWW.WORLDWEATHER.ORG. Press release, 14 December 2001.

3. World Meteorological Organization, 2001: Weather on the Internet

and Other New Technologies. WMO/TD No. 1084.

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Figure 1. The content page of the Severe Weather Information Centre website.

Figure 2. A sample web page from the World Weather Information Service website.

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Figure 3. A diversity of channels is available for submission of forecasts.

Figure 4. Number of city forecasts available in the WWIS website (December 2001 to

May 2002).

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Figure 5. A schematic diagram of the World Weather Information Service data collection and

distribution system.

Manpower (Man-Month) Up to Dec. 2001 2002 2003

SWIC 12 12 8

WWIS 26 42 22

Total 38 54 30

Other Resources (US Dollars) Up to Dec. 2001 2002 2003

SWIC 1,400 7,600 7,300

WWIS 5,000 24,800 15,200

Total 6,400 32,400 22,500

Figure 6. Resources for the development and management of the two pilot websites (past and

projected).

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12

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

Sep 2001 Oct 2001 Nov 2001 Dec 2001 Jan 2002 Feb 2002 Mar 2002 Apr 2002 May 2002

Month

Pag

e V

isit

s

SWIC WWIS

Figure 7. Visitor statistics of the two WMO pilot websites since their inception

(SWIC: September 2001, WWIS: December 2001).