National Centre of Meteorology rolls out host of new e-services

Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous said, "Owing to the unwavering support of our wise leadership, the National Centre of Meteorology has emerged as an active player in the field of meteorology locally and internationally. This supports the UAE Vision 2021 that aims make the UAE one of the best countries in the world in terms of economic and social development."

Omar Al Yazeedi, Director of Research, Development and Training at NCM commented that the Centre has given a complete facelift to its website to ensure ease of use and access to all information related to the weather as well as NCM’s key activities and services. In addition, several new services and features have been added to the website such as viewing satellite maps, viewing and tracking tropical cyclones, monitoring earthquakes and requesting weather information for companies and the public through NCM website.

Al Yazeedi also revealed that for the first time in the world, specialists using the website https://www.rain.ae/radar3d will now be able to view radar information in high-quality 3D format, see how clouds are formed and observe them from different angles and sizes. The website also allows them to view cloud data horizontally and vertically to visualise its actual size that sometimes stretches to more than a hundred kilometres. This will enable specialists to estimate the amount of water carried by clouds at the present time and in some previous cases.

Developed as a joint research and development project with MapTiler.ae, the weather and radar data visualisation tool provides global background maps in Arabic language allowing companies and organisations to include maps in their products and services.

Through the website Rain.ae, NCM has also launched a unique service to provide weather information in an innovative format on a global scale, allowing access to weather forecasts for the next ten days with the support of high-quality animation and the ability to choose multiple weather elements at different altitudes.

Using cutting-edge technologies, Rain.ae offers an overview of the global weather patterns, as well as accurate forecasts of temperature, humidity, precipitation, winds, atmospheric pressure and wave heights in any location across the globe.

The redesigned website also includes the updated version of Ghaith page that features important information to community members and meteorologists, offering them access to data from the five most important numerical forecast models on a local, regional, and global scale for comparison purposes. Furthermore, Gaith maps contain accurate data for many weather elements at different altitudes.

NCM has also launched its new World Weather application, which provides users with hourly weather forecasts for major cities around the world over a period of 10 days and weather forecast for the UAE for the next four days. Using NCM’s advanced technology infrastructure, the app can display observations from NCM’s weather stations for the past 24 hours and hourly weather forecasts for the next three days across the country.

It also incorporates weather maps that display the latest warnings, radar images and the output of numerical prediction models. Available on both iOS and Android devices, the app also allows users to check prayer times and Qibla direction from anywhere in the world.