Modernizing Ukrainian weather services in collaboration with Finnish Meteorological Institute

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center (UHMC) have launched a joint development project funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Finland starting from the beginning of January 2022. The four year-long UHMC-FMI Meteorology project (UFIM) aims at partially automating weather monitoring, forecasting and early warning services in UHMC. Automatizing and modernizing the whole value chain of weather service enables new, timely, and even tailored services for the general public, stakeholders and marginalized groups.

Weather services will be automated and modernized

During the course of the project, 10 new automated meteorological stations will replace the currently operating non-automated weather stations in different regions of Ukraine. HMC has chosen locations to best represent the different areas of the country. The project will install an open-source software SmartMet and SmartMet Alert developed by FMI to enhance automated weather service provision together with new tailored products for general public, stakeholders and marginalized groups.

The project will enhance accessibility to the weather services through e.g. existing social media channels and new mobile phone application. In addition to immediate modernization actions, the project also assesses future needs for upgrading hydrometeorological infrastructure. This will support a long-term sustainability for the UHMC’s field of services.

The most important working method will include the capacity building of the UHMC staff through trainings and participatory, joint working at all steps of the project. During the project, collaboration with Meteorological Institutes of South-East European countries will be strengthened through enhancing weather information exchange. The visibility of modernized weather service portfolio will be promoted to all levels of beneficiaries to encourage them benefitting from the new services.

Adapting to hazardous weather events in changing climate

The ultimate impact of the enhanced, automated weather services will include at least: reduction of vulnerability of citizens to extreme weather events and natural disasters; and add value to situational awareness, planning and decision making of Governmental and/or non-Governmental agencies related to natural disasters.

More information:

Finnish Meteorological Institute on Twitter

Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center on Facebook Project manager at FMI: Anne Hirsikko, anne.hirsikko@fmi.fi, tel. +358 50 420 5345 Project manager at UHMC: Oleg Skoropad, omtm@ukr.net, tel. +380 44 239-93-21