Abstract
Abstract. The Cyprus Early Warning System (EWS) and its validation are presented in this study. The EWS was developed within the framework of the Weather Risk Reduction in the Mediterranean project (RiskMed), the main objective of which is to warn the authorities and the public for severe weather phenomena, in order to minimise the impacts of weather related hazards. For the validation of the EWS, a comparison is made between the output of the system and the observations retrieved from 24 automatic weather stations operated by the Meteorological Service of Cyprus. From the validation, it resulted that the system underestimates the temperatures and overestimates the rain and the wind over Cyprus. These results can be attributed, firstly to the sea coverage of the study areas and secondly to the weakness of the weather model to represent topography. The EWS is a useful forecasting tool for local weather forecasters whose duties include the issue of warnings which are subsequently disseminated to the appropriate authorities acting for the safety of people and properties.
Highlights
The Weather Risk Reduction in the Mediterranean (RiskMed) is a European Union co-funded project in which Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta participated
The RiskMed project can be characterized as a full-fledged system for weather forecasting; within the framework of this project an Early Warning System (EWS) was developed, which provides accurate and detailed weather forecasts of all meteorological hazards from extreme meteorological phenomena that happen in the central and east Mediterranean, such as heavy rain, thunderstorms, snowfall, strong surface winds, high waves and extremely low and high temperatures
Summary
The Weather Risk Reduction in the Mediterranean (RiskMed) is a European Union co-funded project in which Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta participated. The partners of this project are the University of Ioannina, Greece; the National Observatory of Athens, Greece; the Region of Epirus, Greece; the Italian National Research. For the accomplishment of the above goal, the project combines satellite images, lightning data and meteo-marine sensors for the monitoring of severe weather events over the sea It uses high resolution meteorological and wave models for the provision of weather forecasts. The EWS automatically detects, in accordance with specific thresholds, the areas where adverse weather phenomena are expected within the two to three days and subsequently issues relevant warnings.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
