State Meteorological Agency

It was founded in 1887 as the "Instituto Central Meteorológico" by Royal Decree of August 12 and it was part of the Directorate-General for Public Instruction of the Ministry of Development. As stated in the founding Decree, the Institute had to "especially calculate and announce the probable weather to the ports and capitals of the province, without prejudice to the other scientific and practical work entrusted to it." In the democratic period, a new restructuring took place in 1978, when it was renamed the National Institute of Meteorology (INM) and became dependent on the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The second and last restructuring of the agency happened in 2008, when the National Meteorological Institute was renamed State Meteorological Agency and it assumed all the goods and responsibilities of its predecessors. The presidency's powers were divided in two: the Secretary of State for Environment was designated ex officio president, with representative and government powers over the AEMET, while the executive powers were entrusted to a new position, the director. == Activities and resources ==

AEMET's main task is "to develop, implement and provide meteorological services falling within the competences of the State, as well as to give support to other public and private activities which improve the safety and quality of life of the Spanish society". Its activities include, among others, taking meteorological observations in Spain and archiving them, weather monitoring and forecasting, and doing scientific research in numerical weather prediction models. To accomplish these tasks AEMET has at its disposal high computing power and a vast observation network, including staffed and automatic weather stations, radiosondes, weather radar and lightning detectors. == Organization ==

The AEMET is organized through two types of bodies: government and executive. The government bodies are the President and the Governing Council, while the executive bodie of the Agency is the Director. • The President, who is also the Secretary of State for Environment. • The Governing Council, chaired by the president and integrated by representatives of the government departments. • The Director, appointed by the Governing Council. • The Directorate for Meteorological Production and Applied Science. • The Department for Meteorological Production. • The Department for Applied Science and Climatology. • The Izaña Atmospheric Research Centre. • The Directorate for Technology and Infrastructure. • The Department for Observation and Infrastructure. • The Department for Information and Communication Technologies. • The Directorate for Strategy and Citizen Servicies. • The Directorate for Administration. • The Management Department. • The Department for Territorial Delegations Coordination. == References ==