The membership will help Slovenia with preparing early warnings about floods, heat waves, droughts and heavy storms with strong winds, ARSO added.

According to ARSO, Slovenia will now be able to access data, services, equipment and knowledge available to other members of the ECMWF. It will also help co-create strategic decisions on the development of the centre.

The participation in the development of new systems and the use of data are also central to many special weather forecasts that the national meteorological service devises in support to branches like agriculture, energy, transport, tourism and water management.

The European centre was founded in 1975 and now consists of 34 states, of which 20 are full members. The 18 founding members were joined by Iceland in 2010 and Slovenia on 1 December 2012.