This text is part of the Weather Preparedness & Resilience Toolbox developed by the YOUROPE Event Safety (YES) Group within YOUROPE’s 3F project (Future-Fit Festivals). It is aimed at everyone involved in planning, building, and operating open-air events. It helps festivals and other outdoor events become truly weather-ready by offering both practical and research-based resources as well as background information on weather and climate. Learn how to design safer and more weather-resilient outdoor events.

Weather Toolbox – Severe Weather Information Centre

Report on Severe Weather Information Centre (SWIC) — severeweather.wmo.int

The homepage severeweather.wmo.int hosts the Severe Weather Information Centre (SWIC) 3.0, a platform operated under the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). WMO is the United Nations’ specialized agency for meteorology, climate, and hydrology that coordinates global weather, climate, and water information and services among national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs).

The primary purpose of the SWIC website is to:

• Provide a centralized, authoritative source of official severe weather warnings and information issued by NMHSs and WMO-designated regional warning centres.
• Support international risk reduction and disaster preparedness by facilitating access to timely, credible warnings about severe meteorological events.

It is one of the core components of the WMO Global Multi-hazard Alert System (GMAS) and supports the UN Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to ensure that everyone in the world is protected by life-saving early warning systems.

When accessing severeweather.wmo.int, users encounter a live data dashboard that aggregates multiple types of severe weather information in real time:

Live Warnings

• A table- and map-based display of official alert messages currently in effect, sourced directly from national and regional authorized warning services.
• These alerts are provided in Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) format, which is a standardized digital format used globally for alert distribution. (severeweather.wmo.int)

Severe Weather Observations

• The site displays observational data for severe weather phenomena such as:
  • Heavy rain/snow
  • Gales
  • Thunderstorms
  • Fog
    
    

Additional Resources and Links

The homepage also links to related WMO global services, including for example:

• WMO global weather forecasts and warnings (general WMO portal)
• World Weather Information Service (WWIS)
• WMO Register of Alerting Authorities
• Meteoalarm (European hazard warning collaboration)

The site targets different user groups:

• General public and media: Provides reliable severe weather warnings and advisory information in a user-accessible format.
• Emergency managers and decision-makers: Supports risk reduction planning, preparedness, and response by consolidating authoritative warnings.
• Meteorologists and technical users: Offers structured CAP feeds and links to supporting resources for integration into alerting systems.

The SWIC was developed and maintained by the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) on behalf of WMO and has been operational since 2005. It functions as a global aggregator of severe weather warnings, reducing reliance on disparate national sources by centralizing official alerts in standardized formats. The site contributes to global disaster risk reduction efforts by enhancing the availability and accessibility of high-impact weather information.