EUMeTrain Event Week on Forest Fires

The event had total of six sessions of around one hour each, with presentations from 16 experts from different organisations in Europe, such as EUMETSAT, the Land Surface Analysis SAF, the Atmospheric Composition SAF and ECMWF, as well as national meteorological services, universities, a research institute, and a managing agency.

The sessions addressed the whole life cycle regarding forest fires, such as vegetation status and forest fire risk, hot spots and fire smoke detection, and burnt area monitoring. There were both plenary and showcase/practical sessions, including a successful session on the use of Jupyter Notebooks to process satellite products.

There was a broad audience throughout the week, such as researchers, general forecasters, aviation forecasters, forestry engineers, firefighters and civil protection officers. There was a maximum of 270 participants from around 50 countries, with participants per session varying between around 90 and 170. Although 75% of participants came from Europe, there were also 15% of participants from Africa, with the remaining participants coming from Asia, South America, and Canada.

After each session, which included two or three presentations, a quick 30-second voluntary and anonymous survey was requested, with a 22 – 40% completion, with responders increasing their knowledge from a range of 2.59 – 3.22 to a range of 3.65 – 4.14 (on a scale of 1 to 5) and 91% stating the sessions met the expectations.

Access the event week recordings

For more details see EUMeTrain

EUMeTrain Web Page Statistics

The EUMeTrain website continues to serve as a platform for accessing meteorological training resources, with recent statistics showing steady use of the website and its educational material.

April recorded around 16,000 unique visitors, 25,000 visits, and 54,000 page views, while May showed an increase, with around 23,000 unique visitors, 39,000 visits, and 62,000 page views.

Although June had fewer visitors than May, it recorded the highest number of page views in the three-month period, reaching 93,419 page views. A clear increase in activity was visible on 26 June, coinciding with the publication of the Forest Fires Event Week resources. On that day, the website recorded 48,938 page views, which was far above the June daily average. The resources section was among the most-accessed parts of the website in June, recording 7,672 hits, confirming strong interest in the newly published materials.

Across the three months, the homepage and the resources pages are the most visited ones, followed by other frequently accessed sections, such as the ePort and the RGB Color Guide. The most downloaded file was the synoptic_textbook.pdf, with the number of requests varying from around 1,400 to 1,800 per month. Other popular downloads included several RGB training materials, such as the CloudPhaseRGB.pdf, the CloudTypeRGB.pdf, and the RGB_recipes.pdf.

We are glad that the website remains a useful place for users to access EUMeTrain training material and expand their knowledge of meteorological and satellite-related topics.

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Baltic+ course gathered forecasters to Vilnius, Lithuania

The Baltic+ training courses for forecasters from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, have been run since 2014. The course consists of a three-week online phase, followed by a three-day in-person phase. Each Baltic country and Poland takes, in turn, the responsibility for organising the course. This year the Lithuanian Hydro-meteorological Service (LHMS) organised the course, with funding support from EUMETSAT.

The special focus this year was on warm season frontal precipitation on the wider Baltic region. The participants enhanced their skills in:

1. Identifying the frontal systems using satellite images.
2. Using satellite soundings for monitoring the temperature and moisture structures within the fronts.
3. Using satellite derived precipitation products for frontal cases.
4. Effective use of radar for detecting precipitation.
5. Skills in using NWP guidance for precipitation forecasts.

This year's course hosted 45 participants, both online and in the classroom. The participant feedback was positive:

"The course structure is fully consistent with the topic. The structure and information provided during the online phase allowed for improved knowledge in many aspects."

"I plan to integrate satellite-derived precipitation products and sounding data into my daily operational forecasting routine, to improve the accuracy of short-range forecasts for frontal systems."

Nordic forecaster course NOMEK celebrates 30 years of cooperation with EUMETSAT

The NOMEK (Nordic Forecaster Training Course) is a specialised training programme for operational meteorologists, primarily from the Nordic countries. NOMEK focuses on high-latitude forecasting, satellite and radar image interpretation, and the application of numerical weather prediction tools.

The course aims to update forecasters on new meteorological developments and promote international networking.

This year's course marked a special anniversary of 30 years of NOMEK cooperation with EUMETSAT. The first course was delivered in 1995, and since 1996 EUMETSAT has co-funded the event together with the Nordic meteorological services. Over the decades, NOMEK has grown to a recognised training system within the Nordic countries, with a large number of operational meteorologists having participated in the courses.

A testimony from a participant from this year course summarises the importance of this training event: "At NOMEK I enjoyed the most the opportunity to meet new people. It is an incredible gift to have the opportunity to meet and talk with such experienced forecasters – their knowledge and understanding is not something that can be taught through a book or school. It is the real life 'lived experience' that is so invaluable, especially to someone relatively new to forecasting."

User Engagement with Operational Fire Experts

After two sessions on the Introduction to Fire Products, users were asked: “How many of you would be interested in a specific session dedicated to creating a forum where fire experts can exchange their opinions?” The interest was strong, so a dedicated User Exchange was organised.

The User Exchange session provided a dedicated space for discussion around fire-related products and services. It helped participants address their own questions and marked the first step towards building a community that can ideally continue over time.

The session brought together experts from different areas, including atmospheric composition, fire monitoring, data access services, and other relevant domains. This format allowed participants to receive targeted answers, explore practical use cases, and engage in a more informal and interactive discussion on the use of fire-related data and products.

EUMETSAT will further strengthen collaboration with selected operational wildfire monitoring experts in a dedicated workshop taking place in Darmstadt in November 2026. During the event, participants will explore real-world use cases from the 2024 – 2026 fire seasons in Europe, with the aim of expanding their knowledge on the use of satellite-based fire products from Meteosat and Sentinel-3.

International Remote Sensing Summer School 2026

With the growing number of satellite missions, and the increasing computing power available to process their data, understanding the fundamentals behind remote sensing products and composites is becoming more important than ever. These products are used daily in both operational services and scientific research, yet their underlying principles are often overlooked.

For another year, we came together to explore the foundations of remote sensing and the principles of information acquisition from modern satellite missions, with a particular focus on MTG. Twenty participants from 11 countries took part in lively discussions and hands-on exercises with real satellite data. They left with new knowledge, valuable practical experience, and an expanded international network of colleagues with whom to exchange ideas in the years ahead.

EUMETSAT-ESSL Severe Convective Storms Testbeds

EUMETSAT-ESSL Severe Convective Storms Testbeds continue to be popular with European operational forecasters.

Due to the nature of these courses, based on hands-on, real-time nowcasting and forecasting of severe convective storms, using satellite imagery and other available observation and NWP model data, forecasters are immersed into an environment they experience in their everyday work.

Additionally, their forecast decisions are supported by theoretical concepts of convective storms, presented by ESSL trainers, and the use of satellite data is guided by EUMETSAT trainer present at each testbed. This spring two testbeds received especially high evaluation notes from the participants, again proving the value of such training.

Two more testbeds will be offered in the autumn, already fully booked, and the next series of three EUMETSAT-ESSL testbeds is already planned for 2027, so keep an eye on the training calendar.

Ocean Wind retrieval by satellite scatterometry

At the request of marine forecasters of Météo-France, a 2.5-hour online course in French was delivered, explaining the basics of scatterometry and wind retrievals. The aim of the course was to provide an overview of the scatterometer wind retrieval process and the European data production context.

46 forecasters were successfully training, with very positive feedback. The course materials are now available to be adapted and delivered for other EUMETSAT member states' meteorological services, or partner organisations interested in similar training.