Elements for Life

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OUTH

EASTERN

UROPE

is surrounded by the Adriatic

and Ionian seas to the west, the Black and Marmara seas

to the east, and the Mediterranean and Aegean seas to

the south. On the northern border it touches the Pannonian

lowland. The southern edges of the Alps, the Carpathians and

the Dinaric Alps indicate the parameters of the area.

According to these various influences, a multitude of climate

types prevail, including continental, mountainous and

maritime (Mediterranean). This in turn results in a broad

range of recorded temperature and precipitation. The annual

average precipitation ranges from 500 millimetres in the east

lowland up to 5,000 millimetres in the West Mountains. The

highest temperature is above 40 degrees Celsius and the

lowest below –35 degrees Celsius.

The area is frequently subjected to strong winds – for

example, Bora experiences gusts of up to 70 metres per second

along the Eastern Adriatic Coast and through Košava in the

Danube River valley. It is also common to find deep snow in

the mountainous areas during the winter season. Agriculture

suffers every year due to spring and autumn frosts. Heat and

cold waves, landslides, flash floods and droughts represent a

permanent risk to human safety, the environment and the

economy. Severe thunderstorms are frequent in the summer

period, as well as hail, and water and land spouts. More frequent

and severe weather extremes, the visible symptoms of global

climate warming, are also evident. Such occurrences indicate

the necessity for closer collaboration between NMHSs (National

Meteorological and Hydrological Services) in the sub-region.

Countries

South-eastern Europe constitutes a small overall area, but

embraces a plethora of countries each representing a different

culture and a different level of economy. The following are

considered to represent south-eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia

and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary,

Israel, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Republic

of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.

Recent conflict has detrimentally affected the sustainability

of the area, including the attempts at collaboration over mete-

orological and hydrological policy. This prompted the WMO

to bring back the alliance of the countries, by organizing the

Informal Conference of South-Eastern Europe (ICEED) with

all NMHS Directors invited. The first ICEED meeting held in

Sofia, Bulgaria in 2001 resulted in the attending countries

signing a Memorandum of Understanding. Each successive

ICEED meeting (2002: Geneva, Switzerland; 2003: Athens,

Greece; 2004: Bucharest, Romania; 2005: Sarajevo, Bosnia and

Herzegovina; 2006: Dubrovnik, Croatia) has produced signif-

icant progress in collaboration over ideas and actions. Similar

success is expected of the Belgrade, Serbia meeting in 2007.

Constraints and challenges

In general, the gathering and sharing of meteorological and

hydrological information in South-Eastern Europe is not at a

satisfactory level. Other areas of Europe gather data more thor-

oughly and more frequently, as well disseminating the results

to forecasting centres with speed and reliability.

This important topic was discussed at the Sixth Annual

Meeting of the ICEED held in Dubrovnik, Croatia in May 2006.

The need for sharing data in order to improve the short, medium

and long term accuracy of weather and flood forecasting was

officially recognized. This sharing ideology was envisaged on a

regional level, along with data-sharing protocols and capacity

building for fully operational instrument networks.

The expectation of the ICEED directors is that the feasibility

study will enable them to identify the gaps in their capacity as

well as to improve coordination among the various countries.

Furthermore, the feasibility study could be the basis for a sub-

regional programme supported by the WMO, World Bank,

Finnish Meteorological Institute, and other potential donors.

There are clear advantages of a regional approach to support-

ing the NMHS:

• South-eastern Europe includes many small countries that

lack independent weather and flood forecasting resources,

and thus particularly require the input of other countries

• Implementation of the system will be much cheaper if it

is designed regionally; for example, the number of expen-

sive radars for each country will be reduced significantly.

NMHS Strategy in south-eastern Europe

Ivan

Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ), Croatia

South Eastern Europe

Photo: Public web