Prof. Dr Gerhard Adrian, president of the German Weather Service (DWD), has become the first German to stand as candidate for the presidency of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The elections to the office of WMO president will be held during the next World Meteorological Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, June 13, 2019. The WMO has 192 members, each of whom designates a permanent representative, who usually is the director of the national meteorological or hydrological service. Only permanent representatives can stand for election as president or one of the three vice-presidents of WMO. The president of WMO presides over the sessions of the WMO Congress as well as the sessions of the Executive Council. Germany has been a member of the WMO since 1954 and currently has around 85 DWD staff members involved in WMO working groups or various bodies. In 2018, the DWD was designated a World Meteorological Centre (WMC) of the WMO. As such, the DWD fulfills the following three functions: Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) for global deterministic numerical weather prediction; Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) for global ensemble numerical weather prediction; and Global Producing Centre (GPC) for long-range forecasting.
