Meteorological agency of Spain
State Meteorological Agency
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Formed
| August 18, 1887
; 136 years ago
(
1887-08-18
)
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Preceding agencies
| - Instituto Central Meteorologico (1887-1978)
- Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia (1978-2008)
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Headquarters
| Madrid
,
Spain
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Employees
| 1,167 (2020)
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Annual budget
| €
133.8 million, 2023
[1]
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Agency executive
| - Miguel Angel Lopez Gonzalez, President
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Parent agency
| Ministry of Environment
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Website
| www
.aemet
.es
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The
State Meteorological Agency
(
Spanish
:
Agencia Estatal de Meteorologia
,
AEMET
) is a
state agency
of the
Government of Spain
responsible for providing
weather forecast
, warnings of hazardous weather and assisting the administrations in such matters. The AEMET is part of the Secretariat of State for Environment of the
Ministry for the Ecological Transition
and is headquartered in the
University City
,
Madrid
. The agency was known as
Central Institute of Meteorology
from 1887 to 1978 and
National Institute of Meteorology
from 1978 to 2008 when it adopted its current name.
[2]
The AEMET performs forecasting based on weather and climate modelling from data collected from its network of monitoring centers. The agency has centers distributed through the
regions
and it has offices in almost every airport and air force base. In addition, there are monitoring observatories spread throughout the Spanish geography.
It represents Spain in international meteorological institutions, such as the
World Meteorological Organization
(WMO), the
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
(EUMETSAT) and the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
(ECMWF).
History
[
edit
]
It was founded in 1887 as the "Instituto Central Meteorologico" by Royal Decree of August 12
[3]
and it was part of the Directorate-General for Public Instruction of the
Ministry of Development
. As stated in the founding Decree, the Institute had to "especially calculate and announce the probable time to the ports and capitals of the province, without prejudice to the other scientific and practical work entrusted to it."
[3]
The creation of the agency was promoted by the Development Minister Carlos Navarro Rodrigo and
Francisco Giner de los Rios
, founder of the
Institucion Libre de Ensenanza
, in an attempt to correct the country's delayed development of modern science. It was the first institution dedicated to the meteorological service in Spain. Its first director was the scientific Augusto Arcimis who remained in office until 1910. The first headquarters of the institute was the Castle building in the
Retiro Park
, Madrid.
With different denominations this agency has been playing the role of "National Meteorological Service" since its creation. During the
Second Republic
, in 1933, it became dependent on the Directorate-General for Aeronautics of the Ministry of War. After the
Civil War
, in 1940, all the meteorological services were unified in the renowned "National Meteorological Service", which was attached to the Ministry of Air. In 1962 a new building was inaugurated in the
University City of Madrid
that in the 70s assumed the central services.
[4]
In the democratic period, a new restructuring took place in 1978, when it was renamed the National Institute of Meteorology (INM) and became dependent on the
Ministry of Transport and Communications
.
[5]
The second and last restructuring of the agency happened in 2008, when the National Meteorological Institute was renamed State Meteorological Agency and it assumed all the goods and responsibilities of its predecessors.
[2]
Activities and resources
[
edit
]
AEMET's main task is "to develop, implement and provide meteorological services falling within the competences of the
State
, as well as to give support to other public and private activities which improve the safety and quality of life of the Spanish society".
Its activities include, among others, taking meteorological observations in Spain and archiving them,
weather monitoring and forecasting
, and doing scientific research in
numerical weather prediction
models.
To accomplish these tasks AEMET has at its disposal high computing power and a vast observation network, including manned and automatic
weather stations
,
radiosondes
,
weather radar
and
lightning detectors
.
[6]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Africa
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Americas
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Asia
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Europe
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Oceania
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