Regional Activities
To support WMO member states' activities and create an international network of expertise, WWRP is involved in several regional research projects:
Regional Activities (2024 -2027)
Project | Countries involved | Duration | Purpose | Region |
WISER – EWSA (Weather and Climate Information Service - Early Warnings for Southern Africa) | Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, United Kingdom | 2023-2025 | The WISER EWSA team of meteorologists, academics, economists, and user engagement specialists from South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and the UK will work with disaster risk management agencies and non-governmental organisations, focusing on women and people with disabilities to reduce disaster risk through the co-production of new satellite based nowcasting information and services for early warnings. | Region I and VI |
South Africa (Johannesburg), United Kingdom (London), Hong Kong, Singapore. | 2021- 2025 | To focus on nowcasting, aviation weather, including the uncertainty/confidence estimation over the Terminal Control Area for the next 0-6 hr. | Region I, VI and II | |
Tropical Cyclone - Probabilistic Forecast Products (TC-PFP) | 2021- 2025
| Provide a single and centralized source for the media and general public to access official warnings and information issued by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) efficiently. | Region II, III, IV, V, VI | |
In Arctic and Antarctica | 2024-2027 | Improved observation and modelling to provide a better understanding of the Arctic amplification mechanisms through an improved understanding of physical processes in the polar regions.
| Region II, IV, VI | |
Norway, Arctic | 2025 - 2026 | The project aims to address critical gaps in atmospheric and oceanographic data in the Isfjorden region in Svalbard, particularly responding to the rapid Atlantification that impacts the area. This phenomenon has significantly reduced sea ice cover and changed marine ecology, which calls for enhanced monitoring and understanding of the changes. | Region VI | |
North Atlantic Waveguide, Dry Intrusion, and Downstream Impact Campaign (NAWDIC)
| France, Germany | 2023 - 2026 | NAWDIC is an international field campaign focusing on mid-latitude atmospheric dynamics with the aim to provide detailed observations for improving the understanding and modelling of the mesoscale tropopause structure, the dry intrusion air stream - PBL interaction, and their relation to high impact weather (HIW) in the North Atlantic region in winter. NAWDIC will build directly on insights from the North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream impact EXperiment. | Region VI |
Advancing Nowcasting with Deep Learning techniques (ANDel)
| Ghana | 2023 - 2026 | The ANDel Project is a pioneering initiative aimed at revolutionizing weather forecasting in West Africa. Leveraging cutting-edge DL techniques, ANDel seeks to drastically improve the precision and timeliness of weather predictions. Traditional nowcasting approaches often face challenges due to the need for frequent calibration and limited real-time data access. In contrast, DL techniques can learn intricate patterns from historical data and satellite imagery, enabling highly accurate predictions with minimal human intervention. | Region I |
Atmospheric River Reconnaissance (AR-Recon)
| USA | 2016 - 2024 | This project aims to revolutionize the physical understanding, observations, weather predictions, seasonal outlooks and climate projections of extreme events in Western North America, including atmospheric rivers, the North American summer monsoon and their impacts on floods, droughts, hydropower, ecosystems and the economy. | Region IV |
Netherlands, Ethiopia | 2024 - 2025 | This project aims to develop and pilot an effective early warning system for urban flooding in rapidly urbanizing African cities. | Region I and VI | |
Climate Risk and Early Warnings (CREWS) Central Africa
| 11 Central African countries (PRESAC and ECCAS member states of which 7 are LDCs and 1 SIDS) | 2022 - 2026 | Aim: Enhanced national early warning systems, with a multi-hazard, impact-based, and seamless approach. Improved regional cooperation frameworks and capabilities for observation, data exchange, and forecasting of climate and weather. Dissemination, emergency planning, and response capacities developed in each of the beneficiary countries. | Region I |
Climate Risk and Early Warnings (CREWS) East Africa
| Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan | 2021 - 2025 | The four-year CREWS East Africa Project aims to improve Early Warning Services (EWS) in East Africa and develop the coverage of impact-based early warning services across Lake Victoria and surrounding communities to support the East African Community (EAC) EWS Project Vision 2025. | Region I |
Project Forecast of Antarctic Sea Ice Trend (FAST) | Canada, China, Australia, France, Italy, USA, Antarctica | 2023 - 2025 | Project FAST aims to identify the processes leading to the melting of Antarctic Sea ice due to warming through field observations and international collaborations. It seeks to develop a long-term forecast system and generate seasonal forecast of Antarctic Sea ice, incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. | Region II, IV, V, VI |
Argentina, Italy, Antarctica | 2025 - | T-SCAN will study supercool clouds and the role of turbulence using in-situ measurements across the Antarctic Peninsula. | Region III, VI | |
Resilience and Preparedness to Tropical Cyclones over Southern Africa (REPRESA) | South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi, UK | 2023 - 2026 | To enhance early warning systems for tropical cyclones in Southern Africa and to conduct research on the evolving risks posed by cyclones in a changing climate. By doing so, the project aims to formulate adaptation strategies that strengthen resilience and reduce loss of life and economic impacts in the region. | Region I, VI |
Germany, UK, USA, Canada, Antarctica | 2017 - | The project focuses on coordinating, comparing, and evaluating the skill of seasonal Antarctic sea ice predictions, with a focus on the summer season. The project gathers contributions from over 20 participants worldwide, using both dynamical (process-based) and statistical (data-driven) prediction methods. | Region IV and VI | |
Countries around the Mediterranean Sea, USA | 2024 - 2028 | This project aims at establishing a network including researchers with expertise in climate variability, predictability, prediction, model development, forecasting tools, applications and end-users of climate information, fostering co-development of products/indicators of interest for different sectors in the Mediterranean. | Region I, IV and VI | |
The North American Upstream Feature-Resolving and Tropopause Uncertainty Reconnaissance Experiment (NURTURE) | USA, Canada | 2024 - 2028 | The overarching goal of NURTURE is to quantify the impact that perturbations poleward of the jet stream have on jet stream | Region IV |
Norway | 2024 - 2026 | The main goal of the project is to observe and better understand the complex interplay between atmosphere, waves, and sea-ice in the Marginal Ice Zone | Region VI | |
Acoustic Navigation and communications Technologies for Submersible Units Below Ice and Cavity Exploration (ANTSUBICE) | USA, New Zealand, UK, Sweden, South Korea | 2026 - 2032 | This project aims to reduce uncertainties in sea level rise projections by developing innovative autonomous under-ice exploration technologies for investigating ice shelf-ocean interactions beneath ice shelves. | Region II, IV, V, VI |
| Improving Weather Forecasting Models for Services in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Regions | Australia, New Zealand, Argentina | 2024 -2026 | This research aims to contribute to the improvement of weather, ocean, ice and climate forecasts that provide usable information that is relevant, accurate, reliable, actual and accessible (Qvistgaard, 2022) and meets users’ actionable knowledge, planning, decision-making, situational awareness, risk assessment and safety needs in Antarctic and Southern Ocean (ASO) regions. | Region III, V |
| Analysis of the Causes of Heat Waves and Construction of an Intelligent Seasonal Prediction Model in the Southern Slopes of the Central and Western Himalayas (HI-Heat) | China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan | 2025 - 2027 | This project aims to develop a high-resolution meteorological dataset to analyze heatwave patterns, drivers, and risks in South Asia, particularly the central-western Himalayas. Using advanced machine learning, statistical downscaling, and climate models, it will identify spatiotemporal characteristics, map population exposure, and define disaster risk zones. The research seeks to improve heatwave forecasting, enhance understanding of multi-factor interactions, and support adaptation strategies. Additionally, it fosters multinational collaboration among researchers from China, Pakistan, and Nepal, strengthening regional capacity through training and advanced research tools for disaster risk mitigation, climate resilience, and sustainable development. | Region II |
| Formation Mechanism and Sub-seasonal Dynamic Prediction of Extreme Rainfall in the Southern Slopes of the Himalayan Region (HI-Rain) | China, Nepal, Bhutan | 2025 - 2027 | This project aims to improve extreme rainfall prediction on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, particularly in Nepal and Bhutan, where increasing rainfall events trigger floods and landslides, endangering lives and infrastructure. Using in situ observations, multi-source precipitation data, and reanalysis data, it will analyze spatiotemporal patterns and underlying mechanisms. By optimizing topographic parameters within the IAP-CAS sub-seasonal prediction system, the project seeks to enhance forecasting accuracy. Its outcomes will strengthen disaster preparedness, support climate resilience, and foster long-term collaboration among regional institutions, providing timely warnings and response strategies for climate-related hazards in vulnerable mountain communities. | Region II |
| SOS - Skillfull Oceanographic Searchers | Norway | 2026 - 2029 | The project will leverage collaboration with emergency responders and public administration, namey the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centres responsible for Search and rescue missions, and The Norwegian Coastal Administration responsible for environmental risk and oil spill mitigation. The research and demonstration cases require exchange of search result data, and the capacity to test new forecast products that are the result of co-development work in the project. | Region VI |
| PREVENIR | Argentina, Japan | 2022 - 2027 | The main goal of PREVENIR is to develop an impact-based early warning system for urban floods designed for two highly vulnerable urban basins within the two most populated cities in Argentina. . This system will be the first of its kind in Argentina and will provide useful tools and recommendations for the implementation of similar systems in other parts of the world. | Region II, III |
Previous Activities
Multiple countries involved. | 2021 - 2024 | To evaluate nowcasting systems available in the different WMO Regional Associations, with a particular focus on developing countries, and types of warnings generated on severe weather. | Region III, I, II, IV, V, VI | |
France | 2020 - 2024 | Advance research on the theme of the “future Meteorological Forecasting systems at 100m (or finer) resolution for urban areas”. Such systems would prefigure the numerical weather prediction at the horizon of 2030. | Region VI | |
Austria | 2018-2024 | Improve our understanding of exchange processes in the atmosphere over mountains and at evaluating how well these are parameterized in NWP and climate models. | Region VI | |
MedCyclones (European network for Mediterranean cyclones in weather and climate) | Multiple countries involved. | 2020 - 2024 | Coordinate the activities of researchers in meteorology and climatology and scientists from weather/climate services to provide a deeper understanding of Mediterranean cyclones and improve the European capacity to predict their environmental and climate impacts. | Region VI |