Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre

As a result of the poor communications between countries following the Chernobyl disaster in the Spring of 1986, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was requested by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international organizations to arrange for early warning messages about nuclear accidents to be transmitted over the Global Telecommunications System (GTS).

As a result, during 1989 Meteo-France (MF), Environment Canada (EC) and the United Kingdom's Met Office (UKMO) were all set up as RSMCs under interim arrangements between the WMO and the IAEA.

[1] Under these arrangements Meteo-France provided global coverage with the UKMO as the backup centre until each WMO region had at least two RSMCs for transport model products.

[1] The new arrangements came into force in August 1994, with EC and NOAA responsible for the Americas, while MF and the UKMO covered the remaining parts of the World.

[2][3] In 2021 there were ten meteorological centres for distribution of transport, deposition, and dispersion modeling, in the event of an environmental catastrophe that crosses international borders:[4] A Tropical Cyclone Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre is responsible for detecting tropical cyclones in its designated area of responsibility, and for providing basic information about the systems present and their forecast position, movement and intensity.