, seal = , seal_width = 155 , logo = , logo_width = 200px , formed = , preceding1 = , preceding2 = , dissolved = , superseding = , jurisdiction =

Government of Afghanistan The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political pow ...

, headquarters =

Kabul, Afghanistan Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

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Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority The Afghan Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation ( ps, د ترانسپورټ او ملکي هوايي چلند وزارت, ) is the Afghan Government Ministry in charge of the management of air and ground transportation, operation of airports ...

, parent_agency = , child1_agency = , keydocument1 = , website = , footnotes = The Afghanistan Meteorological Authority, also referred to as the Afghanistan Meteorological Department, is located in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. The agency operates under the

and is led by Abdul Qadeer.

History

During the

Soviet occupation of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, the Afghanistan Meteorological Authority had one of the most advanced weather stations available at the time and a staff of 600.

First Taliban Regime

In 1996,

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

forces sacked its office because

weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th cen ...

had been banned as it was considered to be

sorcery Sorcery may refer to: * Magic (supernatural), the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed to subdue or manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces ** Witchcraft, the practice of magical skills and abilities * Magic in fiction, ...

. Equipment was ruined and over 100 years worth of weather records were destroyed. During that time, only real-time observers remained on staff. Because of the ban,

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is use ...

ers were harmed because drought information and forecasting could not take place. In 1998, an

Ariana Afghan Airlines Ariana Afghan Airlines Co. Ltd. ( ps, د آريانا افغان هوايي شرکت; prs, هواپیمایی آریانا), also known simply as Ariana, is the flag carrier and largest airline of Afghanistan. Founded in 1955, Ariana is the olde ...

flight flew into unexpected weather, causing it to crash into a mountain, killing 45 people.

Recovery

In 2003,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

financed the installation of over a dozen simple

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

s around Afghanistan. The stations provide basic information such as temperature, barometric pressure, and rainfall. Also in 2003, the

World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics. The WMO originated from the Inter ...

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

provided the Authority with copies of its lost records.

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

troops at

Camp Julien Camp Julien was the main base for the Canada's role in the Afghanistan War, Canadian contingent of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, Afghanistan. The camp was named after Lance Corporal George Patrick Julien, a Canadian ...

assisted in collecting data by launching

weather balloon A weather balloon, also known as sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments aloft to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed by means of ...

s twice a day. The data was primarily for

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

and the armies of the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, but was shared with the AMA as well. In 2016, weather balloon launches at

Kabul International Airport , nativename-r = , image = Flightline at Kabul International Airport.jpeg , caption = The flightline at Kabul International Airport in January 2012 , IATA = KBL , ICAO = OAKB , ...

were done by contract and NATO meteorologists on the NATO side of the complex. NATO had a Combined Meteorological Unit staffed by a Romanian Officer in Charge, Czech Republic military, and U.S. and Turkish contractors. With the aim of providing full services while the Afghans were trained to take over operations.

References

{{National Meteorological Organisations Geography of Afghanistan Governmental meteorological agencies in Asia Government agencies of Afghanistan