The World Meteorological Day was observed globally on 23
rd March 2017.
The theme of WMD 2017 is ‘Understanding Cloud’ to highlight the enormous importance of clouds for weather climate and water.
The day is organized every year by World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The theme aims to highlight the enormous importance of clouds for weather climate and water. Clouds are central to weather observations and forecasts.
Clouds are one of the key uncertainties in the study of climate change: we need to better understand how clouds affect the climate and how a changing climate will affect clouds.
Clouds play a critical role in the water cycle and shaping the global distribution of water resources.
World Meteorological Day marks the launch of a new edition of the International Cloud Atlas after the most thorough and far-reaching revision in its long and distinguished history.
The new WMO Atlas is a treasure trove of hundreds of images of clouds, including a few newly classified cloud types.
It also features other meteorological phenomena such as rainbows, halos, snow devils and hailstones.
For the first time ever, the Atlas has been produced in a digital format and is accessible via both computers and mobile devices.
The International Cloud Atlas has its roots in the late 19th century. It was revised on several occasions in the 20th century, most recently in 1987, as a hard copy book, before the advent of the Internet.
What Are Snow Devils?- Whirlwinds are subdivided into two main types, the great (or major) whirlwinds and the lesser (or minor) whirlwinds.
- The first category includes tornadoes, waterspouts, and landspouts.
- Some lesser whirlwinds may sometimes form in a similar manner to greater whirlwinds with related increase in intensity.
- These intermediate types include the gustnado and the fire whirl.
- Other lesser whirlwinds include dust devils, as well as steam devils, snow devils, debris devils, leaf devils, and shear eddies such as the mountainado and eddy whirlwinds.
