EWP daily briefing... Model-based product development

Today was the orientation briefing for the NWS forecasters participating in the EWP this week. As part of the briefing we present a short weather discussion where we will ultimately select the region where we will be focused on for the day. Today during the briefing I once again showed the forecasters the NSSL-WRF simulated satellite imagery and lightning threat forecasts and explained how they work. One forecaster asked about generating products from these model data, in particular the 10.7-3.9 channel difference for low cloud and fog. I mentioned that we hope to be developing products from the simulated model output in the future as a proxy for the real products to be available on GOES-R rather than relying on current instruments which may not be able to provide us with the spectral, spatial or temporal we need to produce these products. In addition, Wayne Feltz mentioned that the eventual plan would be to have some sort of real-time rapid updating model forecast imagery to simulate observed satellite imagery and products for use in the Proving Ground.

The plan for the day is to operate over the WFO Dodge City, KS and Amarillo, TX CWA regions and focus on the GOES-R products first while storms are hopefully still initiating to get some feedback from the UWCI and OTTC products while they are most applicable. Unfortunately, at the time of the training, which took up the first half of the EWP day, severe thunderstorms were already ongoing with associated tornado and severe thunderstorm watches all the way from the borders of Canada to Mexico. (see images below) Therefore, getting some quality CI events may be difficult due to expanding cirrus from the already mature convection... updates will be provided as the day progresses.




SPC watches and associated radar reflectivity by 2000 UTC on 24 May 2010