Climate Exchange

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ransport

and

nfrastructure

At the beginning of 2012 the numerical weather predic-

tion unit was initialized in the forecast office, as an ongoing

project to be self-sufficient in the modelling aspect of

meteorology, at least for the State of Qatar. Improvements

were made to communication lines with the relevant

Government agencies for severe weather occurrences.

In addition, in December 2011 QMD was proud

to be accredited with the ISO 9001:2008 Quality

Management System by the certification authority

Quality Austria, for the provision of meteorological

services. This means the added responsibility of main-

taining a superior level of services compliant with

national and international standards set by the World

Meteorological Organization.

During the last decade the State of Qatar has

carried out massive development in different sectors

such as infrastructure projects, especially as a boom

in construction led to an increase in enquiries related

to meteorological data from 2006 onwards. This has

been achieved in a very professional way. The types

of information include forecasting data, climate data,

tidal predictions and specialized reports. These data

have been provided in hard and soft copy at very low

cost. As Qatar is now embarking on very large devel-

opments projects in all fields, which will include

almost all aspects of the infrastructure, QMD has a

part to play by providing all climatological data for

structural works, planning, transport, water desali-

nation, energy projects, and its evolving role in

petroleum and gas works.

QMD is an active member of the Qatar Environment

Committee and participates in all local and inter-

national meetings. In addition, QMD is one of the

parties that contributed to the Qatar Initial National

Communication to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change issued in 2011.

Climate services for major projects

Through its modernization, QMD is very much quali-

fied to provide professional and accurate meteorological

services. The State of Qatar is to host major international

events during the coming years, the most remarkable

of these being the FIFA World Cup 2022, which will

be a welcome challenge for the Qatar Government and

its people. We expect that QMD will have an excellent

chance to show its competence in contributing to the

success of the tournament. QMD was involved in all

stages of preparing the bid to host the tournament,

supplying all meteorological and climatological data as

required by the committee – including data relating to

temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direc-

tion and rainfall.

In preparation for the FIFA World Cup, the Qatar

2022 team, alongside international climate control

experts, have developed environmentally friendly

outdoor technologies and strategies to be deployed at

stadiums, training sites and fan zones. This has involved

the design of areas of comfort for fans, delegates, teams,

media, match officials and the FIFA family.

Qatar Meteorological Department (QMD), one of the departments

of the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, consists of four sections:

• Climate

• Forecast and Analysis

• Observation

• Network.

Major improvements

Having realized theneed tobetterour services, and tomigrateall ouroper-

ations to state-of-the-art technology, QMD underwent, and successfully

completed, a full modernization and upgrading project in all sections

including various facilities with Météo-France International, using

the latest equipment and infrastructure. Major achievements in this

respect include:

•

12 automatic weather stations in addition to two buoys for

marine observations

•

Four manned observing stations

•

The latest forecast techniques using Synergie

•

Climate database management using CliSys

•

Accurate rainfall tracking and forecasts using stationary and

mobile weather radar

•

Mobile meteorological assistance for major events and

exhibitions using Meteo Mobile vehicles

•

Modern communication and IT systems for the Network section

•

State-of-the-art facilities for forecasting and aviation services

•

A numerical weather prediction unit for short and medium-term

forecasts

•

Interaction with the public using social networks like Facebook

and Twitter, and the

www.qweather.net

website.

The Climate section has very good records of climatological data for

all working stations, with more than 50 years of records for Doha

Airport station. User-friendly meteorological applications have been

developed for mobile, tablet and PC users and a major project is

underway to create a regional climate centre in Doha.

New Doha International Airport (NDIA) is currently under construction. The design

takes account of the present and future climate, with extensive planting of

indigenous plants and innovative use of recycled water

Images: QMD