On this occasion, the World Meteorological Organization adopted "Understanding Clouds" as the theme for this year to underscore the need to know well about the effects of clouds which play a pivotal role in weather forecast and warnings.

This day, the hydro-meteorological sector of the DPRK carried out such diverse activities as bringing people to clearly understand how clouds affect the climate and how a changing climate will affect clouds.

In recent years, nationwide efforts have been directed to modernizing the weather forecast and observation equipment.

A regular weather forecast system was established and an analyzing method of short period forecast introduced into extended forecast to further raise the forecast nicety.

And a unified control system for hydro- and maritime-meteorological information was set up throughout the country to put observation and estimation of natural environment on a regular basis.

Scores of forecast aid programs were developed with the help of Kim Il Sung University, the State Academy of Sciences and other research institutes.

Meanwhile, more than 70 automatic meteorological observatories have been built in different parts of the country and Pyongyang Hydro-meteorological College was elevated to Pyongyang Hydro-meteorological University.