23rd of March

Clouds play a crucial role in weather forecasts and warnings. They help to drive the water cycle and the entire climate system. To highlight the significance of clouds for weather climate and water, this year’s theme of World Meteorological Day has been set as ‘Understanding Clouds’.

The meteorological and hydrology communities, through decades of observations and research, have come to understand that cloud processes from microphysics of initial nucleation to superstorms viewed from satellites provide vital information in weather prediction, particularly for precipitation. Understanding clouds from a climate perspective introduces new and challenging questions, questions which in turn challenge our overall assumptions of how our