E.C.M.W.F stands for The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting. It is based near Reading in Berkshire and is a European Organisation.

Weather forecasting can be a very expensive business and although many of the larger European countries have their own mathematical, or numerical, models not every country can afford to.

So in 1973 seventeen European states set up the centre to develop a system which would enable them to look at the weather up to ten days ahead.

The seventeen original countries were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. They have been joined by Croatia, Czech Republic, Iceland, Hungary and Slovenia.

Meteorology is the study of the weather worldwide and to this end meteorologists are very fortunate in that they "speak" a universal language of mathematics. Weather observations are made at least every hour across the whole world, coded into a universal mathematical code, and are then sent very quickly to all countries. So in return for your own weather observation you can receive one from everyone else. As well as these, observations are made by satellites, aircraft, ships and balloons and these are also sent to the major collecting stations, one of which is at ECMWF.

Using the most advanced computers, a daily computation is made which gives the forecasters weather maps out to ten days ahead; these maps are then available to all the national weather services in the organisation. The forecast maps produced by ECMWF are considered to be amongst the most accurate anywhere in the world. So all the nations co-operating in the scheme have access to the most up to date forecasting techniques for a fraction of the cost if they had done it on their own. They can then concentrate their meteorological efforts on the detailed, or meso-scale, weather of their own country.

With so many nationalities working at the centre it would be an administrative nightmare to have to publish all the forecasting output and research papers in the twenty two languages so English, German and French are the three working languages. Everyone employed there has to be fluent in one of the languages and have a good working knowledge of at least one of the others.

The weather is universal knowing no national boundaries, and E.C.M.W.F. is a wonderful example of continental cooperation producing ten day weather forecasts, which help not only national governments to plan ahead, but also businesses to help in the success of their country and the continent of Europe as well.

Related Links:

- Find out more about ECMWF at their website