A growing human interest in the polar regions fueled by climate change and its polar amplification, and the realization that significant knowledge gaps in terms of observational coverage and process understanding exist, have stimulated the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to address the lagging forecasting capabilities at the poles. Major efforts to increase polar environmental prediction capabilities on hourly-to-seasonal Polar Prediction Project (PPP) and seasonal-to-centennial Polar Climate Predictability Initiative (PCPI) time scales have been initiated. A key element of these activities is the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP), a period of intensive observing, modeling, prediction, verification, user engagement, and education activities from mid-2017 to mid-2019.