WWIS website Hitting the 800 Million Mark

The World Weather Information Service (WWIS) website (http://worldweather.wmo.int/) has been very well received by people all over the world since its operation in 2001. The cumulative number of page visits has already exceeded 800 million. In recent years, the access rate has been increasing steadily and new records have been set each year. With the launch of the brand-new WWIS future version in early 2010, the total number of page visits of the existing and future versions from January to September reached a record high of over 100 million for the period, with an average of more than 11 million per month.

The WWIS website was developed and maintained by the Hong Kong Observatory on behalf of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WWIS aims to provide authoritative and reliable weather information of National Meteorological Services around the world to all internet users. At present, 124 WMO Members provide official weather forecasts covering more than 1,300 cities on the website.

The WWIS future version website launched in April this year is to meet the public's need in the new era. This version of WWIS is Google Earth enabled. It allows users to freely move around a virtual globe by changing the viewing angle and position. It features a newly added quick search function and a versatile "fly-over" function allowing users to easily access to the weather information at any parts of the world. This future version was showcased in the MeteoWorld Pavillion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

The future version of WWIS can be accessed by clicking the banner at the top on the front page of WWIS website (http://worldweather.wmo.int/), or directly via the link: http://worldweather.wmo.int/globe/.

Yearly page visits to WWIS