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International responsibilities

WAFC London

The Met Office is one of only two World Area Forecast Centres (WAFC) - the other is WAFC Washington. Since 1984, WAFC London has provided international forecasting services to meet Annex 3 to the ICAO Convention on Civil Aviation. This means having the ability to provide global forecasts of upper winds and temperatures for all flights throughout the world.

This specialised information enables operators to optimise safety and fuel consumption for their aircraft.

  • Providing global upper-wind and temperature data twice each day
  • Delivering significant weather data (SIGWX) charts every six hours for FL250 and above
  • SIGWX covers international flights operating over Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Atlantic
  • Includes operational meteorology (OPMET) TAFs, METARs and SIGMETs

WAFC London Performance Indicators

Latest WAFC update, September 2008

PDF Download our 'WAFC update' brochure
(PDF, 1.85 Mb)

Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC)

We enhance safety for the north-east Atlantic routes, provide reports and forecasts for the movement of volcanic ash plumes within our area of responsibility, and cover the UK, Iceland and the north-eastern part of the North Atlantic Ocean.
More about VAAC

International data distribution

The powerful satellite distribution system, SADIS, which gets essential information to aviation users across half the planet, is delivered and maintained by the Met Office.
More on SADIS

Met. Watch Office (MWO)

We are responsible for the provision of en route hazardous weather warnings (SIGMETs) to aircraft within our area of responsibility.