Book description
This book offers a complete primer, covering the end-to-end process
of forecast production, and bringing together a description of all the
relevant aspects together in a single volume; with plenty of
explanation of some of the more complex issues and examples of
current, state-of-the-art practices.
Operational Weather Forecasting covers the whole process of
forecast production, from understanding the nature of the forecasting
problem, gathering the observational data with which to initialise and
verify forecasts, designing and building a model (or models) to
advance those initial conditions forwards in time and then
interpreting the model output and putting it into a form which is
relevant to customers of weather forecasts. Included is the generation
of forecasts on the monthly-to-seasonal timescales, often excluded in
text-books despite this type of forecasting having been undertaken for
several years.
This is a rapidly developing field, with a lot of variations in
practices between different forecasting centres. Thus the authors
have tried to be as generic as possible when describing aspects of
numerical model design and formulation. Despite the reliance on NWP,
the human forecaster still has a big part to play in producing weather
forecasts and this is described, along with the issue of forecast
verification - how forecast centres measure their own performance and
improve upon it.
Advanced undergraduates and postgraduate students will use this book
to understand how the theory comes together in the day-to-day
applications of weather forecast production. In addition,
professional weather forecasting practitioners, professional users of
weather forecasts and trainers will all find this new member of the
RMetS Advancing Weather and Climate series a valuable tool.
- Provides an end-to-end description of the weather forecasting process
- Clearly structured and pitched at an accessible level, the book
discusses the practical choices that operational forecasting centres
have to make in terms of what numerical models they use and when
they are run.
- Takes a very practical approach, using real life case-studies to
contextualize information
- Discusses the latest advances in the area, including ensemble
methods, monthly to seasonal range prediction and use of
'nowcasting' tools such as radar and satellite imagery
- Full colour throughout
- Written by a highly respected team of authors with experience in
both academia and practice.
- Part of the RMetS book series 'Advancing Weather and Climate'
Peter Inness
is a lecturer in the Meteorology Department of Reading University
having previously been a Reasearch fellow in the Climate Division of the
NERC funded National Centre for Atmospheric Science based at the
University of Reading.
Steve Dorling
is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Environmental
Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Steve is also
Innovations Director at UEA-based Weatherquest Ltd.
