Background

In accordance with the Meteorology Law, 15/2001, over the 2001 – 2005 period the SMC took over the management of part of the EMAs that made up the networks managed by other departments of the Generalitat of Catalonia or other institutions. In 2001, the Agrometeorology Network of Catalonia (XAC) was transferred from the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (DARP) to the Department of the Environment (DMA). Subsequently, in 2003, the Snow Network of Catalonia (XANIC) was transferred from the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC) to the SMC. Meanwhile, the SMC already had its own Network of Automatic Weather Stations, the XMET.

Thus the XEMA is the result of unifying the EMAs of three different networks:

- the Network of Automatic Weather Stations (XMET):

The Network of Automatic Weather Stations was established in 1996 by the Meteorology Service as part of the Directorate General for Environmental Quality of the Department of the Environment, with the aim of knowing the meteorological situation in real time throughout the territory and improving the climatic knowledge base of the country.

- the EMAs of the Agrometeorology Network of Catalonia (XAC):

The Agrometeorology Network of Catalonia was set up in 1988 by the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries to support agricultural and forestry activities. Thus as well as standard meteorological sensors, the network was equipped with specific sensors such as net radiation, subsoil temperature, water content of soil and humidity of combustible forest material. The stations specifically designed for monitoring crop pests and diseases were equipped with a sensor for measuring the level of leaf humidity.

These agrometeorological data can be consulted on the website http://www.gencat.cat/darp

- the EMAs of the Snow Network of Catalonia (XANIC):

The Snow Network of Catalonia began to be implemented in the winter of 1997 in the Catalan Pyrenees by the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia with the aim of obtaining data on the snowpack and weather conditions at high altitudes in order to predict avalanches. Due to the different origin of the networks, the EMAs were not either installed or were not configured to the same criteria, and for this reason the SMC is currently modifying some of the installations and progressively implementing uniform criteria in all the stations in the XEMA with regard to the sample and data collection, equipment maintenance and quality controls applied to the data generated by these stations. Many of these aspects are covered by existing UNE standards (www.aenor.es) for automatic weather station networks.