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This paper presents an approach to postprocess ensemble forecasts for the discrete and bounded weather variable of total cloud cover. Two methods for discrete statistical postprocessing of ensemble predictions are tested: the first approach is based on multinomial logistic regression and the second involves a proportional odds logistic regression model. Applying them to total cloud cover raw ensemble forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts improves forecast skill significantly. Based on stationwise postprocessing of raw ensemble total cloud cover forecasts for a global set of 3330 stations over the period from 2007 to early 2014, the more parsimonious proportional odds logistic regression model proved to slightly outperform the multinomial logistic regression model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the Integrated Nowcasting through Comprehensive Analysis (INCA) system, which has been developed for use in mountainous terrain. Analysis and nowcasting fields include temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation amount, precipitation type, cloudiness, and global radiation. The analysis part of the system combines surface station data with remote sensing data in such a way that the observations at the station locations are reproduced, whereas the remote sensing data provide the spatial structure for the interpolation. The nowcasting part employs classical correlation-based motion vectors derived from previous consecutive analyses. In the case of precipitation the nowcast includes an intensity-dependent elevation effect. After 2--6 h of forecast time the nowcast is merged into an NWP forecast provided by a limited-area model, using a predefined temporal weighting function. Cross validation of the analysis and verification of the nowcast are performed. Analysis quality is high for temperature, but comparatively low for wind and precipitation, because of the limited representativeness of station data in mountainous terrain, which can be only partially compensated by the analysis algorithm. Significant added value of the system compared to the NWP forecast is found in the first few hours of the nowcast. At longer lead times the effects of the latest observations becomes small, but in the case of temperature the downscaling of the NWP forecast within the INCA system continues to provide some improvement compared to the direct NWP output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the skill of seasonal prediction of river discharge and how this skill varies between the branches of European rivers across Europe is assessed. A prediction system of seasonal (winter and summer) discharge is evaluated using 1) predictions of the average North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index for the coming winter based on May SST anomalies of the North Atlantic; 2) a global-scale hydrological model; and 3) 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data. The skill of seasonal discharge predictions is investigated with a numerical experiment. Also Europe-wide patterns of predictive skill are related to the use of NAO-based seasonal weather prediction, the hydrological properties of the river basin, and a correct assessment of initial hydrological states. These patterns, which are also corroborated by observations, show that in many parts of Europe the skill of predicting winter discharge can, in theory, be quite large. However, this achieved skill mainly comes from knowing the correct initial conditions of the hydrological system (i.e., groundwater, surface water, soil water storage of the basin) rather than from the use of NAO-based seasonal weather prediction. These factors are equally important for predicting subsequent summer discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of December 1999, two extremely severe storms only one day apart affected western Europe and caused considerable damage. A variable derived from satellite observations, the so-called temperature of the lower stratosphere (TLS), is used in this study for detecting and tracking the upper-level components of these storms. TLS is computed from a regression over five Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS-N) Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS, aboard NOAA satellites) channels, with coefficients calculated from a climatological dataset [thermodynamical initial-guess retrieval (TIGR)], and provides information on the temperature near the tropopause. The objective of this paper is to assess the ability of TLS, in situations such as these two exceptional storms, to track and depict upper-tropospheric precursors of surface lows. After a brief synoptic description of the meteorological situation, TLS fields as well as the Action de Recherche Petite Échelle Grand Échelle (ARPEGE) model fields (mean sea level pressure, temperature, wind velocity, and geopotential height of the dynamical tropopause) are discussed concurrently for the period 23-27 December. Although the upper-level thermal fields are consistent overall, differences appear, especially during the incipient stage of the second storm. The forecast, which was poor in the operational context, is modified when a configuration close to the TLS one is adopted. Qualitative comparisons of TLS with Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) channel-3 limb-corrected brightness temperatures and with the water vapor imagery are also shown. One advantage of TLS over these two other fields is the earlier detection of the upper-level precursor of the second storm. Because TLS computation is easy and fast, the suitability of TLS as a possible forecasting aid over midoceanic regions is promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA) results for July 1987 are compared with stratocumulus observations for the same period made during the First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Regional Experiment (FIRE). The FIRE I experiment, conducted off the coast of California, provided a comprehensive observational set of data on marine stratocumulus during July 1987. The observations reported in this paper and used as a basis for comparison with the ERA results include the mean diurnal variation of cloud cover, liquid water path, cloud-base and cloud-top height, incoming short-wave and long-wave radiation at the surface, and monthly mean vertical profiles of (potential) temperature and specific humidity. It is concluded that the ERA thermal structure in the boundary layer is quite realistic and the ERA data reveal some diurnal variability. However, in ERA the cloud thickness is overestimated and cloud cover and liquid water path are strongly underestimated as compared with the FIRE I observations. As a result the ERA downwelling short-wave radiation at the surface is much larger than observed in FIRE I. It is argued that the large difference between the ERA downwelling shortwave radiation at the surface and that observed in FIRE I can lead to large biases in the sea surface temperature in a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results are presented from the project Clear-sky Longwave from ERA (CLERA), in which simulations were performed of clear-sky longwave fluxes and heating rates for the period 1979-93, based on data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis project (ERA). This paper presents selected results from CLERA and compares the clear-sky outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) with data from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE). Over much of the globe, especially over the oceans, the clear-sky OLR from CLERA is within the expected uncertainty in the ERBE data of 65 W m 22 . Elsewhere, there are larger differences and to study these the ERA data are compared with independent sources of information: surface synoptic observations of screen-level temperatures and retrievals of the total column moisture and upper-tro-pospheric humidity from satellite data. Over land, the largest clear-sky OLR differences occur at high latitudes in winter and these can be explained by the fact that the ERA surface temperatures are too low in these regions. However, for many other regions over land there was no obvious explanation for the clear-sky OLR differences. Over the oceans, the clear-sky OLR differences in the Tropics are consistent with known systematic biases in ERBE, the most important consequence of which is that the ERBE clear-sky OLR is too high in convective regions such as the ITCZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud-affected radiances from geostationary satellite sensors provide the first area-wide observable signal of convection with high spatial resolution in the range of kilometers and high temporal resolution in the range of minutes. However, these observations are not yet assimilated in operational convection-resolving weather prediction models as the rapid, nonlinear evolution of clouds makes the assimilation of related observations very challenging. To address these challenges, we investigate the assimilation of satellite radiances from visible and infrared channels in idealized observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) for a day with summertime deep convection in central Europe. This constitutes the first study assimilating a combination of all-sky observations from infrared and visible satellite channels, and the experiments provide the opportunity to test various assimilation settings in an environment where the observation forward operator and the numerical model exhibit no systematic errors. The experiments provide insights into appropriate settings for the assimilation of cloud-affected satellite radiances in an ensemble data assimilation system and demonstrate the potential of these observations for convective-scale weather prediction. Both infrared and visible radiances individually lead to an overall forecast improvement, but best results are achieved with a combination of both observation types that provide complementary information on atmospheric clouds. This combination strongly improves the forecast of precipitation and other quantities throughout the whole range of 8-h lead time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Diabatic Influences on Mesoscale Structures in Extratropical Storms (DIAMET) project aims to improve forecasts of high-impact weather in extratropical cyclones through field measurements, high-resolution numerical modeling, and improved design of ensemble forecasting and data assimilation systems. This article introduces DIAMET and presents some of the first results. Four field campaigns were conducted by the project, one of which, in late 2011, coincided with an exceptionally stormy period marked by an unusually strong, zonal North Atlantic jet stream and a succession of severe windstorms in northwest Europe. As a result, December 2011 had the highest monthly North Atlantic Oscillation index (2.52) of any December in the last 60 years. Detailed observations of several of these storms were gathered using the U.K.'s BAe 146 research aircraft and extensive ground-based measurements. As an example of the results obtained during the campaign, observations are presented of Extratropical Cyclone Friedhelm on 8 December 2011, when surface winds with gusts exceeding 30 m s-1 crossed central Scotland, leading to widespread disruption to transportation and electricity supply. Friedhelm deepened 44 hPa in 24 h and developed a pronounced bent-back front wrapping around the storm center. The strongest winds at 850 hPa and the surface occurred in the southern quadrant of the storm, and detailed measurements showed these to be most intense in clear air between bands of showers. High-resolution ensemble forecasts from the Met Office showed similar features, with the strongest winds aligned in linear swaths between the bands, suggesting that there is potential for improved skill in forecasts of damaging winds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the forecasts and hindcasts from the ECMWF 32-day forecast model reveals that there is statistically significant skill in predicting weekly mean wind speeds over areas of Europe at lead times of at least 14-20 days. Previous research on wind speed predictability has focused on the short- to medium-range time scales, typically finding that forecasts lose all skill by the later part of the medium-range forecast. To the authors' knowledge, this research is the first to look beyond the medium-range time scale by taking weekly mean wind speeds, instead of averages at hourly or daily resolution, for the ECMWF monthly forecasting system. It is shown that the operational forecasts have high levels of correlation (~0.6) between the forecasts and observations over the winters of 2008-12 for some areas of Europe. Hindcasts covering 20 winters show a more modest level of correlation but are still skillful. Additional analysis examines the probabilistic skill for the United Kingdom with the application of wind power forecasting in mind. It is also shown that there is forecast 'value' for end users (operating in a simple cost/loss ratio decision-making framework). End users that are sensitive to winter wind speed variability over the United Kingdom, Germany, and some other areas of Europe should therefore consider forecasts beyond the medium-range time scale as it is clear there is useful information contained within the forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synoptic behavior of present-day heat waves (HW) over Europe is studied using the GFDL high-resolution atmospheric model (HiRAM) with 50-km grid spacing. Three regions of enhanced and coherent temperature variability are identified over western Russia, eastern Europe, and western Europe. The simulated HW characteristics are compared with those derived from Climate Forecast System Reanalysis products. Composite charts for outstanding HW episodes resemble well-known recurrent circulation types. The HW region is overlain by a prominent upper-level anticyclone, which blocks the passage of synoptic-scale transients. The altered eddy vorticity transports in turn reinforce the anticyclone. The anticyclone is part of a planetary-scale wave train. The successive downstream development of this wave train is indicative of Rossby wave dispersion. Additional runs of HiRAM are conducted for the 'time slices' of 2026-35 and 2086-95 in the climate scenario corresponding to representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5). By the end of the twenty-first century, the average duration and frequency of HW in the three European sites are projected to increase by a factor of 1.4-2.0 and 2.2-4.5, respectively, from the present-day values. These changes can be reproduced by adding the mean shift between the present and future climatological temperatures to the daily fluctuations in the present-day simulation. The output from a continuous integration of a coupled general circulation model through the 1901-2100 period indicates a monotonic increase in severity, duration, and HW days during the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various measures of forecast quality are analyzed for 2-m temperature seasonal forecasts over Europe from global and regional model ensembles for winter and summer seasons during the period 1991 to 2001. The 50-km Regional Climate Model (RegCM3) is used to dynamically downscale nine-member ensembles of ECMWF global experimental seasonal forecasts. Three sets of RegCM3 experiments with different soil moisture initializations are performed: the RegCM3 default initial soil moisture, initial soil moisture taken from ECMWF seasonal forecasts, and initial soil moisture obtained from RegCM3 ECMWF interim Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim)-driven integrations (RegCM3 climatology). Both deterministic and probabilistic skill metrics are estimated. The better-resolved spatial scales in near-surface temperature by RegCM3 do not necessarily lead to the improved regional model skill in the regions where systematic errors are large. The impact of initial soil moisture on RegCM3 forecast skill is seen in summer in the southern part of the integration domain. When regional model soil moisture was initialized from ECMWF seasonal forecasts, systematic errors were reduced and deterministic skill was enhanced relative to the other RegCM3 experiments. The Brier skill score for rare cold anomalies in this experiment is comparable to that of the global model, whereas in other experiments it is significantly smaller than in global model. There is no major impact of soil moisture initialization on forecast skill in winter. However, some significant improvements in RegCM3 probabilistic skill scores for positive anomalies in winter are found in the central part of the domain where RegCM3 systematic errors are smaller than in global model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three-part study of the anomalously cold European winter of 2005/06 is undertaken. Climatological analysis indicates that the dominant pattern of climate variability in the Euro–Atlantic sector during this winter was not a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), but a pattern with a “blocklike” center located immediately upstream of the continent. Synoptic-dynamical diagnosis of the winter indicates the frequent occurrence of long-lasting blocks in this region, and a Lagrangian trajectory analysis points to the significant role of cloud-diabatic effects in the dynamics of block inception. A series of heuristic numerical simulations lend credence to the hypothesis that the occurrence of the blocks was sensitive to, and significantly influenced by, the warm surface temperature anomalies upstream over the western Atlantic Ocean and North America. Brief comments are made on the significance of the foregoing results for seasonal numerical weather prediction and also their relevance to the consideration of interannual climate variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric moisture within a region is supplied by both local evaporation and advected from external sources. The contribution of local evaporation in a region to the precipitation in the same region is defined as “precipitation recycling.” Precipitation recycling helps in defining the role of land–atmosphere interactions in regional climate. A dynamic precipitation recycling model, which includes the moisture storage term, has been applied to calculate summer variability of the precipitation recycling over Europe based on 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data. Time series for three subregions in Europe (central Europe, the Balkans, and Spain) are obtained to analyze the variability in recycling and to compare the potential in the subregions for interactions between land surface and atmospheric processes. In addition, the recycled precipitation and recycling ratios are linked to several components of the water vapor balance equation [precipitation, evaporation, precipitation minus evaporation (P - E), and moisture transport]. It is found that precipitation recycling is large in dry summers for central Europe, while the opposite is true for the Balkans. Large precipitation recycling is determined in relation with weak moisture transport and high evaporation rates in central Europe. This occurs for dry summers. For the Balkans, precipitation recycling is large in wet summers when moisture transport is weak, and P - E and evaporation are large. Here, the recycling process intensifies the hydrological cycle due to a positive feedback via convective precipitation and therefore the amount of recycled precipitation is larger. For Spain, recycling is also larger when moisture transport is weak, but other correlations are not found. For regions such as central Europe in dry summers and the Balkans in wet summers, which are susceptible to land–atmosphere interactions, future climate and/or land use can have an impact on the regional climate conditions due to changes in evaporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at stimulating the development of soil moisture data assimilation systems in a direction where they can provide both the necessary control of slow drift in operational NWP applications and support the physical insight in the performance of the land surface component. It addresses four topics concerning the systematic nature of soil moisture data assimilation experiments over Europe during the growing season of 2000 involving the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model infrastructure. In the first topic the effect of the (spinup related) bias in 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) precipitation on the data assimilation is analyzed. From results averaged over 36 European locations, it appears that about half of the soil moisture increments in the 2000 growing season are attributable to the precipitation bias. A second topic considers a new soil moisture data assimilation system, demonstrated in a coupled single-column model (SCM) setup, where precipitation and radiation are derived from observations instead of from atmospheric model fields. For many of the considered locations in this new system, the accumulated soil moisture increments still exceed the interannual variability estimated from a multiyear offline land surface model run. A third topic examines the soil water budget in response to these systematic increments. For a number of Mediterranean locations the increments successfully increase the surface evaporation, as is expected from the fact that atmospheric moisture deficit information is the key driver of soil moisture adjustment. In many other locations, however, evaporation is constrained by the experimental SCM setup and is hardly affected by the data assimilation. Instead, a major portion of the increments eventually leave the soil as runoff. In the fourth topic observed evaporation is used to evaluate the impact of the data assimilation on the forecast quality. In most cases, the difference between the control and data assimilation runs is considerably smaller than the (positive) difference between any of the simulations and the observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sensitivity of the atmospheric circulation to the warm Mediterranean sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies observed during the summer of 2003 (July and August) is studied using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model. A control integration imposes climatological Mediterranean SSTs as a lower boundary condition. The first sensitivity experiment uniformly increases these Mediterranean SSTs by 2 K, the approximate mean observed in the 2003 summer season. A second experiment then investigates the additional impact of the SST distribution by imposing the observed SST summer anomaly. The response of the atmospheric circulation in the European area shows some resemblance to the observed anomaly. The weakness of this response suggests, however, that the warm Mediterranean played a minor role, if any, in maintaining the anomalous atmospheric circulation as observed in the summer of 2003. Increasing SST in the Mediterranean locally leads to an increase in precipitation, particularly in the western Mediterranean. Furthermore, significantly increased Sahelian rainfall is simulated, deriving from enhanced evaporation in the Mediterranean Sea. In the ECMWF model the anomalously high moisture is advected by the climatological Harmattan and Etesian winds, where enhanced moisture flux convergence leads to more precipitation. The associated diabatic heating leads to a reduction of the African easterly jet strength. A similar Sahelian response has been previously documented using a different atmospheric model, increasing confidence in the robustness of the result. Finally, the results are discussed in the context of the seasonal predictability of European and African climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a daily historical European–North Atlantic mean sea level pressure dataset (EMSLP) for 1850–2003 on a 5° latitude by longitude grid is described. This product was produced using 86 continental and island stations distributed over the region 25°–70°N, 70°W–50°E blended with marine data from the International Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS). The EMSLP fields for 1850–80 are based purely on the land station data and ship observations. From 1881, the blended land and marine fields are combined with already available daily Northern Hemisphere fields. Complete coverage is obtained by employing reduced space optimal interpolation. Squared correlations (r 2) indicate that EMSLP generally captures 80%–90% of daily variability represented in an existing historical mean sea level pressure product and over 90% in modern 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analyses (ERA-40) over most of the region. A lack of sufficient observations over Greenland and the Middle East, however, has resulted in poorer reconstructions there. Error estimates, produced as part of the reconstruction technique, flag these as regions of low confidence. It is shown that the EMSLP daily fields and associated error estimates provide a unique opportunity to examine the circulation patterns associated with extreme events across the European–North Atlantic region, such as the 2003 heat wave, in the context of historical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decadal variability of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnection to the high-latitude South Pacific is examined by correlating the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) 40-yr Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and observations with the Southern Oscillation index (SOI) over the last two decades. There is a distinct annual contrast between the 1980s and the 1990s, with the strong teleconnection in the 1990s being explained by an enhanced response during austral spring. Geopotential height anomaly composites constructed during the peak ENSO seasons also demonstrate the decadal variability. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis reveals that the 1980s September–November (SON) teleconnection is weak due to the interference between the Pacific–South American (PSA) pattern associated with ENSO and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). An in-phase relationship between these two modes during SON in the 1990s amplifies the height and pressure anomalies in the South Pacific, producing the strong teleconnections seen in the correlation and composite analyses. The in-phase relationship between the tropical and high-latitude forcing also exists in December–February (DJF) during the 1980s and 1990s. These results suggest that natural climate variability plays an important role in the variability of SAM, in agreement with a growing body of literature. Additionally, the significantly positive correlation between ENSO and SAM only during times of strong teleconnection suggests that both the Tropics and the high latitudes need to work together in order for ENSO to strongly influence Antarctic climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has made seasonal forecasts since 1997 with ensembles of a coupled ocean–atmosphere model, System-1 (S1). In January 2002, a new version, System-2 (S2), was introduced. For the calibration of these models, hindcasts have been performed starting in 1987, so that 15 yr of hindcasts and forecasts are now available for verification. Seasonal predictability is to a large extent due to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate oscillations. ENSO predictions of the ECMWF models are compared with those of statistical models, some of which are used operationally. The relative skill depends strongly on the season. The dynamical models are better at forecasting the onset of El Niño or La Niña in boreal spring to summer. The statistical models are comparable at predicting the evolution of an event in boreal fall and winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation is made of the impact of a full linearized physical (moist) parameterization package on extratropical singular vectors (SVs) using the ECMWF integrated forecasting system (IFS). Comparison is made for one particular period with a dry physical package including only vertical diffusion and surface drag. The crucial extra ingredient in the full package is found to be the large-scale latent heat release. Consistent with basic theory, its inclusion results in a shift to smaller horizontal scales and enhanced growth for the SVs. Whereas, for the dry SVs, T42 resolution is sufficient, the moist SVs require T63 to resolve their structure and growth. A 24-h optimization time appears to be appropriate for the moist SVs because of the larger growth of moist SVs compared with dry SVs. Like dry SVs, moist SVs tend to occur in regions of high baroclinicity, but their location is also influenced by the availability of moisture. The most rapidly growing SVs appear to enhance or reduce large-scale rain in regions ahead of major cold fronts. The enhancement occurs in and ahead of a cyclonic perturbation and the reduction in and ahead of an anticyclonic perturbation. Most of the moist SVs for this situation are slightly modified versions of the dry SVs. However, some occur in new locations and have particularly confined structures. The most rapidly growing SV is shown to exhibit quite linear behavior in the nonlinear model as it grows from 0.5 to 12 hPa in 1 day. For 5 times this amplitude the structure is similar but the growth is about half as the perturbation damps a potential vorticity (PV) trough or produces a cutoff, depending on its sign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is the evaluation of some basic measures of skill of the Ensemble Prediction System used operationally at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Probabilistic forecasts for the occurrence of predefined flow patterns are analyzed and validated throughout the 10-day forecast range. The weather regimes used as fixed patterns are those defined by Vautard for the 700-hPa geopotential height and used during the field phase of the Fronts and Atlantic Storm-Track Experiment as a component in the planning of the intense observing periods. The evaluation of the ensemble forecasts is performed for three cold seasons, from 1996 to 1999, using the Brier score and the related skill score. In this case the sample climate and a simple probabilistic forecast (poor man's ensemble) have been used as reference forecasts. The results show a positive skill with respect to the reference forecasts up to the 240-h time step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]