By Mohamed Attia
The Egyptian Meteorological Authority organised several training programmes and workshops during 2025. Among these was organising the Regional Training Workshop on Seasonal Climate Forecasting (WISER MENA SCAPE), in co-operation with the UK Met Office, within the framework of the WISER MENA programme, which aims to support the development of climate services in the Arab region and enhance the efficiency of specialised personnel.
The workshop’s activities were attended by captain Hisham Hassan Tahoun, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, along with a number of authority leaders and international and local experts.
Certificates of appreciation were distributed to trainers, experts, and trainees participating from various Arab countries.
The Authority also organised, through the Cairo Regional Training Centre accredited by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in Geneva, a specialised training programme entitled “Meteorological Technician” for a number of trainees from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The programme included a combination of theoretical lectures and practical applications using the latest equipment and technologies employed in observation stations, in addition to training on the fundamentals of meteorology, methods of analysing climate data, and mechanisms for preparing daily reports and weather forecasts.
Furthermore, Minister of Civil Aviation Sameh El-Hefny received Abdulla Al Mandous, President of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), in the presence of captain Hisham Tahoun, Chairman of the Egyptian Meteorological Authority.
Both sides discussed prospects for enhancing technical and training co-operation, data exchange, and supporting capacity-building initiatives and the development of meteorological infrastructure in Egypt and African countries.
This co-operation contributes to supporting environmental sustainability and maximising the vital role of meteorology in serving various sectors, foremost among them the aviation sector. The discussions also addressed climate change issues and cloud seeding technology.
The Egyptian Meteorological Authority, one of the entities affiliated with the ministry, also organised a training programme in co-operation with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation to train a number of Ugandan counterparts in the field of early warning and meteorological forecasting at the Authority’s Regional Training Centre.
This co-operation comes within the framework of the Egyptian grant provided to the Republic of Uganda to implement the Egyptian-Ugandan project to combat aquatic weeds in the great lakes of Uganda.
