Météo-France is a public establishment operating under the auspices of the French Ministry for the Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing. Météo-France's activities run from weather forecasting to research work on current and possible future climate conditions. Météo-France deploys personnel all over France and in French overseas territories, engaged in monitoring atmospheric conditions, the snow cover and the ocean surface 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Thanks to their expertise, dangerous weather phenomena can be predicted and appropriate response action taken in a timely manner.

Météo-France works with several sectors of activity, providing them with meteorological data tailored to their specific requirements (aeronautics, health, environment, defense, etc.).
Météo-France also contributes to decisions in regards to future possible climatic conditions; specifically, Météo-France has a number of climatologists working extensively on research programs on climate evolution and its impacts (adapting cities to climate change, evolution of extreme weather phenomena, etc.).

A new Objectives & Performance Contract for the years 2012 to 2016

Météo-France recently signed a new Objectives & Performance Contract with the Ministry of Sustainable Development, setting down strategic guidelines for the forthcoming five years, as well as objectives to provide citizens, the State and economic actors with information meeting their specific needs.

This new contract sees Météo-France expand in several domains :

Safety

Météo-France's key role in monitoring meteorological developments and providing support services to facilitate coping with potential technological, sanitary and natural risks has been consolidated through the contract. Moreover, progress made in detecting natural phenomena and in preparing salient warnings will be pursued.

Climatic services and technical support for national policies to adapt to climate change

Météo-France intends to improve its simulation tools, prepare new regional and global climate forecasts, as well as impact studies. Météo-France will also be developing a national Internet portal dedicated to climate-related services, and intended for government bodies, research bureaus, scientists and public authorities.

Air transport and defense

The contract sets out an ambitious roadmap as regards providing support to the aeronautics services and the armed Forces. Specifically regarding the former, Météo-France will continue to develop specialist forecasting and observation systems for large airport hubs, to provide them with accurate information in regards to weather conditions potentially impacting flight safety and the handling capacities of the hub.

In order to successfully complete these actions, the contract also includes an additional research component. Specifically, in liaison with their French and international partners, the Météo-France research teams will be working simultaneously on a number of goals: develop digital weather forecasting tools for the future; reduce potential inaccuracies of climate scenarios; encourage development of an integrated system between meteorology and climate.

To support this ambitious strategy grounded on innovation, an unprecedented investment program was defined, involving a modernization of the essential infrastructures (renewal of the supercomputer; renovation of observation networks; creation of new meteorological radars, etc.) all of which are considered essential to ensure the reliability of future forecasts. In total, €32 million will be invested for each contract year (compared with €19 million for the previous contract).