Press Releases

The Department of Meteorology Cyprus participated in the 19^th Congress of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which took place in Geneva during the period from May 22 till June 02. The Department was represented at the Congress by its Director, Dr Kleanthis Nicolaides, with his capacity as the Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the organization.

Among the resolutions discussed was the announcement of Meteorological, Environmental and Hydrological observing stations of WMO’s member countries to “centennial” stations, i.e. stations that have completed uninterrupted operation for at least one hundred (100) years. Cyprus has several such stations, while, during the 19^th Congress, five (5) more stations of the Department were named centennial stations. These stations are the rain gauge stations of Drouseia, Ayios Neofytos, Kykkos, Kalo Chorio Lemesou and Palaichori, as shown in the following table. The table also shows the date of operation of each station.

With the designation of these 5 stations as centennial stations, the Department of Meteorology now has a total of 14 centennial stations, which are considered a lot compared to the size of the island.

It is important to emphasize the fact that, at the current Congress but also worldwide, a total of 118 stations were named centennial stations, 5 of which belong to Cyprus.

Centennial stations with long and uninterrupted time series of observations are of great importance for WMO, since much more reliable long-term climate data are extracted, while climate models are being checked at the same time.

Photo 1: WMO’s President, Professor Adrian Gerhard, hands over the centennial certificates to Cyprus’ WMO Representative and Director of the Department, Dr K. Nicolaides
 
Photo 2: The Permanent Representatives of the countries whose stations were declared as centennial stations, with WMO President, Professor Adrian Gerhard.  

(MV/ECHR)