Our Story
The field of weather forecasting underwent huge changes in the late 1980s. New technologies— such as Doppler radar and automated surface observations—helped increase the understanding of the development of severe storms and smaller-scale weather systems. This also created a need to train forecasters to incorporate these new research findings and datasets in the forecasting and warning activities. Enter the creation of the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training (COMET).
Our Origins
In 1988, the National Weather Service (NWS) approached the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) to establish a professional development program in mesoscale meteorology. In 1989, UCAR approved the creation of this program, and COMET was born
COMET’s staff throughout our 35-year history.
Our Journey
In our 35-year history, we have become a world leader in innovative, industry-leading weather, water, and climate education and training solutions. We partner with national weather services, university programs, industry stakeholders, and communities across the globe to build impact-based forecasting and decision-support expertise together.
Our sponsors and partners span the globe, enabling us to create exceptional synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences and to deploy innovative tools to support the protection of life and property by our customers.
COMET MetEd
Our flagship education and training tool, COMET MetEd, has more than 1,085 free weather, water, and climate lessons, serving over 840,000 users in 190 countries in nine languages. Our lessons employ cutting-edge instructional design and visualizations that bring scientific concepts to life and simulate forecast decisions communicated to users.
COMET MetEd provides industry-leading educational resources to build weather, water, and climate expertise.
Global Impact
Our team also travels across the globe to implement a variety of innovative solutions that include low-cost, sustainable 3D-Printed Automatic Weather Stations (3D-PAWS); regional numerical weather prediction systems implemented on cloud-computing resources; impact-based forecasting and decision support solutions; regional application-driven software systems; early-alert communication tools; and customized training and resource development.
These efforts are focused on improving monitoring, forecasting, and communicating warnings of high-impact hydrometeorological events in least-developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) to reduce risk to their communities.
Our COMET International Capacity Development Program (ICDP) travels across the globe to build weather, water, and climate expertise everywhere it's needed.
University Support
We also fund collaborations between universities and NWS offices through our University Partnerships program to address local, regional and large scale forecasting challenges.
Learn More
For more about our story, check out this article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
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