A Thriving Weather Enterprise for 2030 and Beyond

The collaborative effort involving the government, academic, and private sectors (including NGOs) to understand, observe, predict, and communicate weather, water, and climate information, and to provide services based on this information, is often referred to as the “Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise.” The notion of a collaborative enterprise involving all three sectors of the community gained wide acceptance following the release two decades ago of the National Research Council’s report “Fair Weather: Effective Partnership in Weather and Climate Services.” “Fair Weather” focused primarily on the provision of weather services (with some attention to climate information, as well) and sought to recommend changes that might reduce the tensions among sectors regarding responsibilities. 

The impact of “Fair Weather” was significant. In 2004, in direct response to Recommendation 3 of the report, the American Meteorological Society established the Commission on the Weather and Climate Enterprise, which later had its scope expanded as the Commission on the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise (CWWCE). The initial role of the CWWCE, which has grown over time to include additional activities, was to provide a neutral venue for frank discussions of enterprise issues among all stakeholders with the aim of avoiding and resolving conflicts. The CWWCE was not set up to adjudicate conflicts. Rather it provided opportunities for enterprise leaders to gather and talk through issues and concerns, and work toward shared understanding.  As a result, suitable revisions to policy and procedures were made, and cooperation and collaboration among all three sectors were noticeably improved with clear benefits to the public (as noted in another National Research Council study released in 2012).

With two decades of experience behind us, it is appropriate to take a fresh look at the state of the weather enterprise and examine where new challenges and opportunities are emerging within it. Accordingly, the AMS Policy Program, working closely with the volunteer leadership of the CWWCE, has begun a two-year effort to assess how well the weather enterprise is performing, and to potentially develop new recommendations for how it might serve the public even better. 

If you would like to be part of the discussions and working groups as the study progresses, or if you would like to provide your sense of the challenges and opportunities facing the weather enterprise, feel free to reach out to the AMS Policy Program: [email protected].

Further reading: Seitter, K.L., M.M. Glackin, P.A.T. Higgins, 2023. A Fresh Look at the Weather Enterprise Two Decades After the “Fair Weather” Report. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.