• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN).
• It is the UN system’s authoritative voice on the state and behavior of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces, and the resulting distribution of water resources.
• It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was founded in 1873.
• Established in 1950, WMO became the specialized agency of the UN for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.
• WMO monitors and forecast the transport of chemical and oil spills, forest fires, volcanic ash, haze and nuclear isotopes.
• The World Meteorological Congress is the supreme body of WMO.
• Secretariat – Geneva, Switzerland.
• Report – State of the Global Climate report (annual), State of Global Water Resources.

India and WMO

• India has been designated as a nodal centre for preparing flash-flood forecasts by the WMO.
• India will develop a customised model that can issue advance warning of floods in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
• The system is called Flash Flood Guidance System which aims to provide forecasts 6 hours in advance.