Statement on the occasion of World Meteorological Day 2025

The passage of intense cyclone Chiodoover Agalega and Mayotte and Garance over Reunion are a few examples of extreme event that we are observing around the world.

Each year on the 23 March, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) celebrates the World Meteorological Day to commemorate the coming into force of the Convention establishing the World Meteorological Organisation on 23 March 1950. It fosters the essential contribution of National Meteorological and Hydrological in saving lives, serving society and protecting our planet.

This year the theme of the World Meteorological Day is Closing the Early Warning Gap Together. The WMO is also celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the World Meteorological Organization as the UN’s authoritative voice on weather, climate and water. For the past 75 years, WMO has turned science into actions for the global good.

The WMO recently confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record and we are also seeing similar trends in our region. Changes in our environment are driving more extreme weather events. Rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones, devastating rainfall, storm surges, flooding, deadly droughts, and wildfires are on the rise. Sea levels are increasing, exposing densely populated coastal areas to coastal inundation and ocean wave impacts.

The Early Warning for All Initiative (EW4All) is a call made by the UN Secretary General in 2022 to ensure universal protection from hazardous hydrometeorological, climatological and related environmental events through life-saving early warning systems by the end of 2027.

At the halfway point of the EW4All, the WMO calls upon governments worldwide to strengthen investments in National Meteorological and Hydrological Services because it plays a vital role to national and international socio-economic development.

Over our region, the prolonged dry spells in Mauritius, the passage of intense cyclone Chiodoover Agalega and Mayotte and Garance over Reunion are a few examples of extreme event that we are observing around the world.

The Mauritius Meteorological Services (MMS) is an essential service that provides a 24/7 service to safeguard and promote public well-being. In January 2023, responding to the call the UN Secretary General, Mauritius promulgated the MMS Warning Regulation 2023 under the MMS Act 2019 for Cyclone, Heavy/Torrential rain, Heavy Swells. Strong Wind and Storm Surge.

Therefore, there is a need for partnership to invest together to create, mobilise and share resources, to innovate to scale up to technologies and advances in science, to foster strong collaboration in support for improving the early warning efforts in Mauritius.