Awards

On the 15th December 2020, the WMO held their inaugural International Weather Apps Awards ceremony in which they announced the results of this competition which was launched in August 2020. The event was hosted online on their YouTube channel here.
“The Weather Apps Awards Competition recognizes excellence in ever-improving mobile-based applications, which have become the most widespread way for the public to access and use weather information.”
The WMO, via their Pubic Private Engagement enterprise, sought to ‘provide recognition, and stimulate the development of ever-improving mobile-based applications for weather and climate information’ Read more…
The awards ceremony, which also included its annual Calendar competition for weather photography, forms part of the celebrations of the organization’s 70th anniversary in 2020.
The competition received 118 entries from all over the world. The submissions were well balanced between the public sector (38%), private sector (41 %), and others (21 %), including universities, research institutions and private weather enthusiasts.
The 13-member international jury, with expertise in various fields including weather and climate, IT, communication and social science, recognized 18 Winners and 14 Honourable Mentions in 3 categories.

We are delighted that the Met Éireann app won the Honourable Mention in Group 3, sub category 1: Award for Information Content – usefulness, reliability, quantity and quality of information submissions from public sector (NMHSs’ apps). This achievement of Honorable Mention of our app acknowledges, and honours, the quality and extent of weather forecasts provided on it, which is a testament to the expertise of our weather forecasters and NWP developers in particular, and of the extended design and test team.
Award Categories:
Group 1 – Innovation and promotion of the use of weather and climate information for development.
Group 2 – Specialized apps award category.
Group 3 – Public weather forecasts and information (general category).
Sub-category 1. Award for information content – usefulness, reliability, quantity and quality of information
Sub-category 2. Award for design and presentation of information – user-friendliness, access, customization
Read more on the ceremony and view the full list of Winners and Honourable Mentions in the WMO new article here
WMO App Awards & Calendar Ceremony on YouTube
@minute 32 Juror Neil Gordon discusses the selection process for Group 3 and was very impressed with features like clickable and colour coded warning maps, and impacts and advice on actions (for the public)- on the Met Office app.
@minute 37 Gerry Fleming discusses the selection process for Group 3 categories. In Sub-category 1 the apps were judged on their usefulness, reliability, quantity and quality of information.

The Ireland eGovernment Awards and Summit, in association with eir Business and Cisco, recognises the innovators and forward thinkers who are pioneering changes and helping deliver better online services on the island of Ireland today.

The Awards are Ireland’s most sought-after accolade in eGovernment, honouring the leaders driving digital services, communication and democracy online.

The eGovernment Ireland Awards ceremony took place in City Hall on 11th September.

Met Éireann were shortlisted in an impressive 4 categories:

Universal Design Award sponsored by NDA – for The new Met Eireann Website & App

Mobile Award – for The new Met Eireann App

Marketing & Social Media Award – Met Eireann Twitter

Irish Language Award – Met Éireann Irish Language Service

We were delighted to win both the Marketing & Social Media Award and the Universal Design Award!

Marketing & Social Media Award for Met Éireann Twitter

Social media is an important part of Met Éireann’s communication with the Irish public.

We started our Twitter presence in September 2014. In July 2017 we initiated an invigoration of our Twitter account with the aim of connecting with more Irish people and connecting better. Using innovations in technology as well as supporting imagination and creativity (all at no extra cost to the organisation) our Twitter following increased from 85,000 in June 2017 to 210,000 in September 2019.

Page views per month in 2017 were 1.1 million. In 2019 it is 6 million. This is an increase of 550%.

Met Éireann is now in the top two national met services in Europe in terms of Twitter followers.

Congratulations to Gavin Gallagher, Joanne Walker and the communications team in the Forecast Office.

Universal Design Award for Met Éireann’s Website & App

Our website www.met.ie has been recognised for providing high quality meteorological information in an easily accessible format to a wide range of users.

Met.ie is one of the most visited public sector websites with over 7.2 million users and over 60 million page views since launch in April 2018. It has achieved the international Web Accessibility standard WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

Our app has been downloaded over 550,000 times.

Met.ie has a high bounce rate of 60% which tells us that over half of users can gain the required information from just one page. Met.ie is also fully mobile responsive.

Accessibility information is available here https://www.met.ie/accessibility This link is available in the website footer.

The location-based forecasts were designed to show all important weather forecast data in an easy to access and understand design, especially on the app.

The Accessible Forecast page https://www.met.ie/forecasts/accessible-forecast/ and the whole website is fully screen-reader accessible, allowing visually impaired users to be informed of issued weather warnings, on the header on all pages, thus enhancing our public safety role.

#egovawards2019

The Met Éireann Podcast won an award at the 2021 DHPLG RÉALTA Awards. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

2020 RÉALTA Awards

At the DHPLG RÉALTA Awards in July 2019, Met.ie website and app won the Divisional Winner Award.

Met Éireann’s Research Division’s IREPS project won the Highly Commended Award.

Met.ie and app was also selected to be considered as a nominee at the Civil Service Excellence and Innovation awards later this year.

Published 13th September 2019

Irish Water Safety (IWS) presented Met Éireann with “The IWS Community & Social Responsibility Award” on Wednesday 28^th November 2018 at Dublin Castle.

Roger Sweeney, CEO Irish Water Safety; Evelyn Cusack, Head of Forecast Division, Met Éireann; Seán Canney TD Minister of State for Community Development, Natural Resources and Digital Development

The Head of Forecasting in Met Éireann, Evelyn Cusack alongside colleagues Joanne Walker and Andrew Doran-Sherlock were there to accept the award. The award was presented by Mr. Seán Canney TD, Minister of State for Community Development, Natural Resources and Digital Development from the Department of Rural and Community Development.

Irish Water Safety are a statutory and voluntary body and registered charity established to promote water safety and reduce drownings in Ireland. Their focus is on Public Awareness and Education of water safety.

Met Éireann utilised our position of authority to publish Irish Water Safety advice on our website with a prominent link on our homepage to the Irish Water Safety website www.iws.ie from June to November and we also promoted IWS safety advice on our social media pages.

Thirty-six lives were saved from drowning by rescuers who received recognition at Irish Water Safety’s National Annual Awards Ceremony at the Hibernia Conference Centre, Dublin Castle on Wednesday 28th November 2018, 2.30pm – 5 pm. Mr Seán Canney TD, Minister of State at the Department of Rural & Community Development presented the “Seiko Just in Time Rescue Award” to the rescuers in appreciation for saving so many lives. ‘It is an honour to pay tribute to these courageous recipients. Tragically an average of 127 people drown in Ireland every year and although that’s 127 too many, the figure would be even higher but for the dramatic efforts of these individuals who saved others from drowning and the ongoing work of Irish Water Safety
volunteers teaching swimming and water rescue skills.”

Long-Service Volunteer Awards were presented to 63 volunteers, recognising a combined total of 1,315 years of service teaching swimming, water rescue and survival skills in communities nationwide. The work of Irish Water Safety’s volunteers in teaching and assessing Lifeguards pays dividends at our waterways every year, reflected in the fact that Lifeguards rescued 331 people from drowning this summer, administered first aid on 4,496 occasions and reunited 329 lost children found wandering unsupervised near water.” “I appeal to all adults to make themselves more aware of the dangers of drowning”, continued Minister Canney. “It only takes seconds for tragedy to strike and this can so easily be avoided if people learn about the hazards and take personal responsibility for their own safety. I ask that people encourage friends and family to read Irish Water Safety’s guidelines at www.iws.ie so that they have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to avoid becoming a drowning statistic.”

IWS Press release

Valentia Observatory was recently recognised as a Centennial Observing Station by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to celebrate the fact that over 100 years of high-quality continuous meteorological measurements have been recorded at the Observatory. On the 17th February, this milestone was commemorated at the Observatory in Caherciveen, Co. Kerry with the unveiling of a plaque by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

During the ceremony the President was brought on a tour of the Observatory’s scientific programmes and the historical Westwood House; he also got the opportunity to launch a weather balloon. Following speeches and the unveiling of the plaque, the President was presented with a memento of the first weather observation recorded at Valentia Island in 1860. Peer Hechler from the WMO presented the formal certificate of accreditation to the Director of Met Eireann, Eoin Moran. The attendance of approximately 200 people included invited guests, members of the public, Peer Hechler (WMO), Simon Gilbert (UK Met Office), Minister of State Damien English and Minister Brendan Griffin as well as a large group of retired staff who contributed greatly to Valentia Observatory achieving world class accreditation.

Director Eoin Moran and Emila Main launching a weather balloon with President Higgins.

Further information on the history and scientific programmes of Valentia Observatory can be found in the commemorative booklet.

Peer Hechler (WMO) presenting the certificate of accreditation to Eoin Moran.

We would like to wish heartiest congratulations to our very own super broadcaster, Evelyn Cusack, Head of the Forecasting Division in Met Éireann, on receiving the EMS Broadcast Meteorologist Award 2018!

This award honours life achievement of an outstanding broadcast meteorologist. Her long, distinguished career in meteorological science began as a weather forecaster in 1981 and she extended her broadcasting skills to television in 1988.

Here is a link to the article in the European Meteorological Society

https://www.emetsoc.org/broadcast-meteorologist-award-for-evelyn-cusack/

Evelyn being presented with her award at the event in Budapest on Wednesday 5th September 2018

Back in the day… Gerry Fleming, Paddy McHugh, Joan Blackburn, Evelyn Cusack and Aiden Nulty