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The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) and the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management - National Research Institute (IMGW-PIB) of Poland announced today (December 13) the launch of the Polish-language version of the World Weather Information Service (WWIS) website (worldweather.wmo.int/pl) of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
The WWIS pools the latest official weather forecasts of over 1 400 cities around the world issued by their National Meteorological and Hydrometeorological Services (NMHSs). The new website enables Polish-speaking communities to gain access to the latest weather information in their own language.
The Director of the Hong Kong Observatory, Mr Shun Chi-ming, said, "We are privileged to have the opportunity to collaborate with the meteorological service of the Republic of Poland in this endeavour. In particular, we appreciate the strong support of the Director-General of the IMGW-PIB and Second Vice-President of the WMO, Professor Mieczyslaw S Ostojski, in further enhancing the WWIS. It is exciting that more countries are joining this meaningful WMO project to better serve the public around the world.
"As travel becomes common these days, people will find the service very useful when it comes to accessing weather information of the cities they plan to visit, and more importantly, doing so in their own languages."
Professor Ostojski said, "It is my great honour to launch the Polish-language version of the WWIS. The project is an excellent example of how Polish-Hong Kong co-operation can contribute positively to the exchange of weather information on a common platform and to the well-being of people around the globe. I invite all WMO members to contribute more weather information from their home countries and to establish translated versions of the WWIS website for their native languages as well."
The Consul General of Poland in Hong Kong, Mr Przemyslaw Jenke, congratulated the HKO and the IMGW-PIB for jointly bringing the Polish-language version of the WWIS website into operation. "This website in Polish is an outstanding model of international co-operation in which Hong Kong and Poland can contribute actively to facilitate communication among people throughout the world. I am sure that this website for weather information will be widely used by our countrymen and other Polish-speaking people," he said.
In 2000, the WMO decided to establish an official website on world weather and entrusted the HKO, which had proposed it, to develop and operate this website. The WWIS website (worldweather.wmo.int) is the world's first and only website featuring official city forecasts issued by the respective national weather forecasters. The WWIS was declared fully operational by the WMO in 2005. In 2008, the WWIS website won the prestigious Stockholm Challenge Award in the Environment Category.
At present, 131 WMO members supply official weather forecasts for 1 453 cities to the WWIS. The website also contains climatological data for the cities, which is useful for travel planning. Users can also visit the websites of individual NMHSs to find out more about the weather in areas of interest. The cumulative total number of page visits to the WWIS reached 850 million in 2010.
To visit the Polish version of the WWIS website, members of the public can go directly via the link worldweather.wmo.int/pl or go to the WWIS English website (worldweather.wmo.int/) and click "Polski".
With the launch of the Polish version, the WWIS now serves the international public in 10 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Ends/Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:01
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