West Weather Research and Forecasting (West-WRF) Model Forecasts

The products are provided “as is” and are intended for research purposes only (disclaimer).

West-WRF is an ongoing effort at CW3E to develop a regional weather prediction system tailored to western U.S. weather and hydrological extremes, including heavy rainfall and extended dry periods. The model is based upon the open-source WRF-ARW, version 4.4.1, under version control at NCAR: http://wrf-model.org.

Two different near real-time forecasts are generated using NOAA’s deterministic 0.25o GFS forecast or the deterministic 0.1o European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) forecast as initial and boundary conditions. Forecasts will be updated once daily based upon 00 UTC duty cycles during the wet season: October through March. Forecasts with lead times up to 240 hours (120 hours for 3 km domain) at hourly resolution on two domains with 9 km and 3 km horizontal resolutions are available for the products below.

Integrated Vapor Transport

Integrated Water Vapor

Near Surface

Radar Reflectivity

Hourly Precipitation

Accumulated Precipitation

Hourly Snow

Accumulated Snow

0°C Height

700-hPa Omega

500-hPa Absolute Vorticity

250-hPa Winds

850-hPa Equivalent Potential Temperature

850-hPa Potential Temperature

Skew Ts

Meteograms

During the rest of the year, CW3E scientists, with the help of collaborators, are using West-WRF as a platform to conduct research into physical process studies, probabilistic forecasting techniques, and the sources of forecast error using data assimilation and forecast verification. If you have encountered this page during the time of year when we are primarily focused on research activities, the images displayed show an interesting forecast from the previous wet season.

Model domain configuration, physics, I/O, and tailored diagnostics have been developed by CW3E personnel. Inquiries should be directed to Daniel Steinhoff, Luca Delle Monache, or F. Martin Ralph. Forecast products displayed here are intended for educational purposes only, and should not be used to inform decisions that carry risk to property or health.