After a long period of steady but unspectacular development meteorology, stimulated by recent advances in high-speed computers, satellites, rockets, radar and telemetry, has recently made some striking progress. The new developments to be described in this article have brought meteorology to the threshold of a new era, with unprecedented opportunities for increasing our scientific understanding of the atmosphere, and for applying this knowledge to the production of weather forecasts of greater reliability, range and economic value, and to the more efficient use of the world's water and climatic resources. This is reflected in the recent remarkable growth of interest and effort in the United States, where expenditure by the Federal Government on the atmospheric sciences increased by 440 per cent between 1959 and 1965. This now totals more than $450 million (f160 million) per annum, nearly one-half being devoted to research. A similar expansion has occurred in the U.S.S.R. where the State Meteorological and Hydrological Service has a staff of 70 000 and an estimated budget of 700&800 million U.S. dollars.