"What kind of weather, climate and waters are we leaving to future generations?" - is the theme of this year's World Meteorological Day, 23 March, whose goal is to point out the necessary global action to provide security to current generations and sustainable progress to future generations.

This year’s World Meteorological Day is special because it coincides with an important anniversary, the 150th birthday of the predecessor of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Meteorological Organization, according to the State Hydrometeorological Institute (DHMZ).

“Looking at the last 150 years, it is evident that the weather, climate and hydrological cycle have experienced significant changes caused by human activity, industrialization and the use of fossil fuels. Climate change is now part of our everyday life, and in the near future the weather, climate and waters will look significantly different from those about which our children learn in schools,” the DHMZ pointed out.

They warned that Croatia, as a part of the Mediterranean Basin, is in a particularly vulnerable position due to the possible temperature rise twice as fast as the global average, exposure to floods, fires, droughts, heat waves, and sea level rise.

“In order to build a safer present and a climate-neutral future for the generations yet to come, the contribution of the national meteorological and hydrological services in planning and creating policies, adaptation measures and risk assessment is important. One of the tasks of DHMZ is to provide quality and reliable meteorological and hydrological data and the development of a high-quality forecast system and early warning of extreme weather and hydrological phenomena”, they said.

The Director General of the DHMZ, Branka Ivancan-Picek, points out that the historical modernization of the DHMZ significantly contributed to the improvement of the realization of this fundamental task.

The DHMZ is bringing to an end the largest modernization project in its history, with which they modernized the meteorological and hydrological networks and modernized and expanded the national network for permanent monitoring of air quality.

“Successful implementation of the METMONIC, VEPAR and AIRQ modernization projects is key to our better resistance to climate change and its consequences,” Ivancan-Picek pointed out.

She also notes that the implementation of modernization is unimaginable without the dedicated work of all DHMZ employees, as well as the generational solidarity of their predecessors, and that their enthusiasm and effort will enable the successful completion of the projects by the end of this year.

However, this is not the end of the desire for further modernization. They want to strengthen the system for monitoring climate change and its consequences, which will speed up further development for the purposes of managing risks from natural disasters and reducing the negative impacts of climate change on society and the economy as a whole, and the main prerequisite for this, as Ivancan-Picek said, is the construction of a new functional building of DHMZ in which all services and activities would be united.