Severe Weather Information Centre adds worldwide fog reports

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Severe Weather Information Centre (SWIC), developed and operated by the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), launched today (23 February) a new service to provide official fog observation reported all over the world. The information will help users around the globe to be aware of areas with low visibility due to fog so as to take necessary precautionary measures against fog induced accidents.

Low visibility caused by dense fog has a high impact on traffic safety. Dense fog may lead to traffic accidents on highway, ship collision in harbours, and delay in air traffic, resulting in casualties and economic losses. Users can now gain access to fog information worldwide through the newly launched fog observation webpage (http://severe.worldweather.wmo.int/fog) on the SWIC. The fog webpage displays the locations of fog with visibility below 1000 metres in the past 24 hours based on the weather reports from land stations and ships of WMO members. When the user places the cursor over the location of fog report on the map, detailed information including the position (latitude, longitude and altitude of land stations) and the observed visibility will be shown.

SWIC is a WMO website that integrates and enhances regional activities within an international framework to reduce loss of life and damages due to severe weather. The website also provides official tropical cyclone information and observation data of severe weather. Apart from the fog information, heavy rain, thunderstorms and gale reports around the world are also available from the website at http://severe.worldweather.wmo.int.

Figure 1. SWIC fog webpage showing the distribution of fog around the world

Figure. 2. Location and visibility of fog report shown on the SWIC fog webpage