The WMO said on Monday that such early warnings were particularly needed in developing countries.
Convening a special meeting in Geneva, the WMO said that in the past five decades, weather, water and climate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people, with 90% of those deaths occurring in developing countries.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo has made boosting early-warning systems a priority but still only 55% of countries have built up the surveillance capacity, data from the United Nations weather agency shows.
“Many millions of people lack protection against dangerous weather which is inflicting an increasing toll on economic assets and vital infrastructure,” the WMO said in a statement.
The number of countries using early-warning systems has doubled in three years to 119. But a WMO assessment of 62 countries showed half of them possess only basic capacity and 16% have less than basic capacity.
However, the WMO is seeing progress in Africa, including Mozambique and Ethiopia, with more countries having functioning websites and issuing standardised alerts.
–Reuters–
