23 March - World Meteorology Day

World Meteorology Day has been celebrated for six decades every 23 March, in memory of the founding day of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, which studies the processes and conditions of the atmosphere, climate and water. The Convention on its Establishment entered into force on 23 March, 1950, and 11 years later this day was declared World Meteorology Day. In our country, the Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia today represents a reference institution for the preparation and presentation of weather and water level forecasts, giving warnings and announcements for extraordinary and dangerous meteorological and hydrological phenomena. Its predecessor, the Federal Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMZ) in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, was founded in 1847, and in 1888 the first National Meteorological Service of Serbia was founded.

This year's theme of World Meteorology Day is: "Oceans, Climate and Weather", which indicates the unbreakable connection between these elements. The oceans cover about 70% of the surface of our planet. They are the largest reservoirs of heat and have an impact on the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In recent decades, great attention of climatologists has been focused on studying the influence of the emission of this gas on the increase of air temperature through the inducing of the greenhouse effect. Changes in ocean temperature result in an increase or decrease in world air temperature, causing large-scale variations in meteorological and climatic parameters.