The Department of Meteorology of Cyprus is part of the organizational structure of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment. Its mission is to provide an increasingly accurate and reliable meteorological and climatological service across all sectors of economic and social life all over Cyprus. The services provided cover all Cyprus territory, its sea area and Flight Information Region (FIR). The Department serves the Cypriot citizen by operating in the very demanding area of Cyprus public sector and by providing expertise where it is needed in the most professional way.
For the achievement of these targets, the Department is archiving the meteorological information that is collected locally, from a network of meteorological and climatological stations developed, operated and maintained by the Department. In parallel, meteorological data are collected continuously from, a large number of overseas meteorological stations, meteorological satellites and radars, and processed data from meteorological centres as well. The volume of the data is enormous and the flow is continuous thus our Department's mission is to process and evaluate these data for the purposes of weather forecasting, nowcasting and for a vast majority of climatological applications as well.
In order to achieve all the above, the Department of Meteorology is supported by the quality of its human resources (and proud of) and is making continual efforts in responding to the needs required by its mission. Even though the Department consists of a small number of staff members, it is well known by its dynamic presence through the daily forecasts informing businesses and the public via newspapers, the radio and the television. It is also known to those involved with climatological data, either for private, academic or commercial use. In parallel to that, it provides services, difficult to be known to the general public, but very well-known and appreciated from the immediate interested parties, which are substantial for a series of activities. For example, note the services provided to the neuralgic sector of defence, aviation, marine and fishing, tourism, power demand, search and rescue but also for services to the operating companies in the Exclusive Economic Zone. The above underlines the specialisation of the Department's services and the need for the staff's continuing education and training which is achieved by available resources.
The Department of Meteorology of Cyprus cooperates with other National Meteorological Services on a bilateral or an international basis. The Department operates upon the enforced guide lines that are dictated from its participation to the World Meteorological Organization a specialised agency of the United Nations. This organisation enforces standards for archiving and managing the climatological data as well as the standards for the meteorological instruments and other devices that are being used. Also, the quality of the services provided to the aviation sector is determined through a series of standards defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the European Union. The Department of Meteorology of Cyprus is fully aligned with the above standards and, where necessary, properly certified for the provision of these services.
The Departments aim is the continuation, improvement an extension of the meteorological and climatological services for the benefit of the citizen and the society of Cyprus.
Dr. Kleanthis Nicolaides
Director