Barcelona not to be the new home of the European Weather Forecast Centre

This morning the ECMWF council chose Bonn as the new location

Miquel Bernis
1 min
Bonn serà la nova seu del Centre Europeu de Predicció

BarcelonaIn the end, the third European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) will not be coming to Barcelona. This morning the council of this organisation has chosen the German city of Bonn to host this new space among the ten cities that aspired to it. Barcelona was among the favourites, as it had come first in the technical phase. The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, said in a tweet: "Only a few tenths of a percent have separated us from Bonn to host the ECMWF". One of the strong points of Barcelona's candidacy was the presence in the city of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, which is currently working on several ECMWF projects.

The ECMWF is one of the most important meteorological centres in the world and is responsible for running the European forecasting model, recognised by the meteorological community as the most reliable on a global scale. The ECMWF also hosts the Copernicus Earth Observation programme, which is primarily aimed at climate change research.

In a press release, the ECMWF states that the new headquarters to be opened in Bonn will give the ECMWF a "very favourable central position in Europe". The agency has been pushed to seek a new location because of Brexit, since many of its activities, such as the Copernicus programme, have close links with the European Union.

Only the meteorological services of the European Union member states are part of the European Centre. Thus, for example, the Spanish Meteorological Agency is a full member, while the Catalan Meteocat is barred from enjoying some privileges of membership. Bonn will thus be added to Reading and Bologna, which are already ECMWF headquarters.

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