Most Czechs use Norwegian app for local weather forecasts, though Czech data is reportedly better

Prague, Dec 30 (CTK) – Most Czechs use a forecast mobile app that relies on data from Norway when checking for weather conditions, although data provided by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMU) are more precise for Czech conditions, CHMU director Mark Rieder told CTK.

In an interview with CTK, Rieder has said Czechs are probably the only European nation using mostly data provided by a foreign country.

He added that the CHMU, now celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding, is using not only European, but also local measurements, making its predictions more accurate.

“These are deeply held opinions and it will be very difficult to change them. It is also about pride and national mentality,” Rieder said.

He admitted that the CHMU did not offer its own mobile weather forecast app before, so Czechs started using the Norwegian one, which was easily available. The CHMU launched its own app only one and a half years ago.

According to Rieder, the Aladin model used in the Czech Republic to calculate the development of temperature, rainfall, wind and cloud amount for the next several hours in the territory of the country, is more precise than the centralised European model when predicting the weather for the next three to six days.

At the moment, the CHMU is planning to get a second supercomputer for roughly 80 million crowns, intended to predict the shifts in weather above the Czech Republic under different climate change scenarios and make seasonal predictions more precise.

Fourteen European countries, including Norway and the Czech Republic, send their up-to-date weather data to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts based in Reading, UK.

The centre is collectively financed by the participating countries, which also send their scientists there regularly. The countries then use the centre’s data to prepare local forecasts.

“Only the Norwegians use the data from the European centre, paid for by them as well as, for example, Austrians and Czechs, and present them through the mobile app as a result of the work of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Norwegian Television,” Rieder said.

According to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) resolution, it is prohibited for one country to prepare weather forecasts for another country. Among the reasons cited are, for example, the protection of each country’s air space.

According to Rieder, the Norwegians are practically reselling the data created by the European centre.

He added that this practice infuriates not just the Czech Republic, but also other countries that cooperate on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, but he also said he thinks that it is useless to try and litigate the matter.

“We need to convince the Czech public that the forecasts provided by our institute are simply better and available at any time,” Rieder said.