2019 - 2020 President's Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society! CMOS is Canada’s principal learned society dedicated to advancing atmospheric and oceanic sciences and related environmental disciplines involving climate, hydrology, limnology, and cryospheric research. It is a privilege to lead this organization, which has more than a half-century of accomplishments and a large and devoted membership. You can read more about the society on our “ About” page.

If you’d like to be a part of CMOS, it’s easy – just sign up here to join at relatively low cost – and student membership is free. There are many benefits of CMOS membership, including reduced registration fees for Congresses, reduced fees and free electronic access to our publications, and member-only access to our accreditation programmes. In addition to holding the annual scientific Congress and publishing Atmosphere-Ocean and the CMOS Bulletin, our Society awards prizes and scholarships, endorses weathercasters and accredits consultants, supports participation of teachers in Project Atmosphere and Project Ocean, and issues scientific position statements.  Many CMOS activities take place at the local level, at the 14 Centres across the country.  Our Centres organize science and policy talks, tours, and luncheons, host talks by the CMOS Tour Speakers, provide judges for science fairs, visit schools, and award travel bursaries to students.  As a CMOS member, you can join the American Meteorological Society (details here) and the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (details here) as Affiliate Members, which entitles you to benefits associated with these societies.  We are also in the process of establishing a similar partnership with the Royal Meteorological Society. All of these CMOS activities rely on the participation of our members and volunteers, who come from universities, government, the private sector, and the public.  I encourage you to get involved in the CMOS community, whether in your local Centre, on CMOS Committees and Special Interest Groups, which are responsible for aspects of research, education, and industry linkages in our professions, attending the AGM, or in other ways.  Having been a CMOS member since 1996, I whole-heartedly believe that our Society is vital to the promotion of atmospheric and oceanic science in Canada and that engagement in its activities can be deeply meaningful and highly rewarding.

Our Centres are busy planning for future Congresses and I invite you to attend Ottawa 2020, Victoria 2021, and Saskatoon 2022. These conferences will showcase new scientific results across a range of topics, highlight the latest activities in the private sector, and give us the opportunity to experience the warm hospitality of our hosts.  Our 54th Congress will be held from May 24 to 28, 2020, and the Ottawa Centre is putting together a terrific program around the theme “Building Societal Resilience to Changing Weather, Climate, Oceans and Environment”.

CMOS’s scientific work and the broader research enterprise in atmosphere-ocean, climate, and related sciences are more important than ever for Canadian society. We continue to focus on a variety of activities related to three broad themes: Membership and Student Involvement, Outreach and Visibility, and Education and Mentorship. To maintain the relevance of CMOS, we continue to need your support through your membership and engagement in our activities. To keep in touch, keep an eye on the CMOS Bulletin , the CMOS website, and our Twitter feed, and join the ARRCU Special Interest Group announcement list.  Let us know what you think of our online content by sharing/liking/retweeting and generally spreading the word about our posts.

I am looking forward to serving you throughout the year, and I hope to see you in Ottawa next May!

Sincerely,

Kimberly Strong