Austria’s weather service marks 175 years of forecasting
Friday 2nd October 2026 on 05:45 in
Austria
Austria’s national weather service, GeoSphere Austria, is marking 175 years of weather forecasting on Friday, ORF reports. The service began on October 2, 1851, with the founding in Vienna of the Imperial-Royal Central Institute for Meteorological and Magnetic Observations.
On the day it was founded, a weather station at Vienna’s Old University recorded a high of 18.9 degrees Celsius. The institute’s first director, Karl Kreil, developed a system for meteorological observations across the Austrian monarchy. Kreil was also director of the Prague Observatory and a physics professor at the University of Vienna.
The institute moved in 1872 to a new building on Hohe Warte, designed by Austrian architect Heinrich Ferstel. It began issuing a daily weather map in 1865. The organization is now both Austria’s national meteorological service and a centre of expertise.
Research and observation have been central to its work since its early years. Its initial network comprised 43 stations; today GeoSphere operates almost 300 automatic weather stations in Austria. They measure conditions including temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind, precipitation, snow, visibility and sunshine. Historical measurement records also provide an important basis for monitoring climate change.
Forecasting methods have changed substantially, with satellites, weather radar, international measurement networks, high-resolution models and supercomputers now providing a three-dimensional picture of the atmosphere. Artificial intelligence is also being used increasingly in forecasting, including for the calculations behind forecasts.
GeoSphere director general Andreas Schaffhauser said a complete replacement of traditional models by AI was not yet in sight, but AI’s role would grow. He said combining the strengths of conventional models and AI would be a key challenge in the coming years.
GeoSphere also warns of extreme weather through a four-level system that informs the public, crisis managers and emergency services about expected events and their possible effects. The service operates the European warning portal MeteoAlarm, connecting Austria with national weather services across Europe. GeoSphere says it generates, measures and processes billions of data points each day.