A GLOBAL fued over access to weather data was averted this week as the heads of the world鈥檚 weather services reached a 鈥済entlemen鈥檚 agreement鈥� on how much information they should exchange. In the run-up to the four-yearly meeting of the UN World Meterology Organisation (WMO) in Geneva, which ended this week, those weather offices which sell forecasts, such as Britain鈥檚, had threatened to limit the data they send to countries such as the US, which supply forecasts to private companies as a cheap public service.
Weather services have exchanged data freely since the 19th century. It takes five days for the energy in a weather system to propagate around the globe, says Joe Friday, head of the US National Weather Service. 鈥淪o if we lose data from the other side of the world, our forecast suffers.鈥� A lack of data from nearby nations can make short-range forecasts less reliable.
No one had a problem until the 1980s, says David Griggs of Britain鈥檚 Meteorological Office. Then, better communications, monitoring technology and computers vastly improved forecasts and made it possible to exchange larger amounts of data routinely. This also gave forecasts more commercial value. Forecasters now sell such services as hourly updates on rainstorms approaching Wimbledon during the tennis tournament, says Griggs. Supermarkets will pay for seasonal outlooks so that they can decide how much ice cream to buy. And hourly temperature forecasts allow gas suppliers to gauge demand.
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Such services, and TV weather forecasts, which in Britain are produced by the Met Office, are provided by private companies in the US. The companies get their data from the National Weather Service, which is required by law to charge only for the cost of copying or transmitting the data. During the 1980s, European governments asked their weather services to cover some of their costs by charging more for some types of data. The British Met Office recoups around 13 per cent of its costs in this way. But the Europeans still provided their data free of charge to other weather services. Conflict arose when private companies obtained European forecasts cheaply from the US National Weather Service and sold them back into the European market, undercutting Europe鈥檚 national services.
The Europeans called this unfair competition. Last year, France and Germany briefly halved the amount of data they put on the telecommunications system used by weather services. They warned that if countries that supplied data free did not prevent the resale of European material, they would impose even more restrictions.
In Geneva the WMO proposed a two-tier system: all the vital, basic measurements, such as temperature, pressure, cloud cover and upper air winds should be freely exchanged, but there could be restrictions on the resale of 鈥渧alue-added鈥� products.
The weather services agreed in principle, but rejected the WMO鈥檚 fixed categories. They will now operate a 鈥済entlemen鈥檚 agreement鈥�, says Friday. 鈥淚f a Met Office tells me it doesn鈥檛 want particular material resold into its market, I鈥檒l tell US companies that we will all risk losing access to that country鈥檚 data if they try to break the condition.鈥�
Poorer countries are anxious for the deal to work. 鈥淚f weather services can be sure their material is not going to be sold back into their market, they can put more on the wire,鈥� says Griggs. This is vital for poor countries, which contribute raw data to the network but depend on others for advanced forecasts.