Probabilistic Forecasts of (Severe) Thunderstorms for the Purpose of Issuing a Weather Alarm in the Netherlands

Abstract

Abstract The development and verification of a new model output statistics (MOS) system is described; this system is intended to help forecasters decide whether a weather alarm for severe thunderstorms, based on high total lightning intensity, should be issued in the Netherlands. The system consists of logistic regression equations for both the probability of thunderstorms and the conditional probability of severe thunderstorms in the warm half-year (from mid-April to mid-October). These equations have been derived for 12 regions of about 90 km × 80 km each and for projections out to 12 h in advance (with 6-h periods). As a source for the predictands, reprocessed total lightning data from the Surveillance et d’Alerte Foudre par Interférométrie Radioélectrique (SAFIR) network have been used. The potential predictor dataset not only consisted of the combined postprocessed output from two numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, as in previous work by the first three authors, but it also contained an ensemble of advected radar and lightning data for the 0–6-h projections. The NWP model output dataset contained 17 traditional thunderstorm indices, computed from a reforecasting experiment with the High-Resolution Limited-Area Model (HIRLAM) and postprocessed output from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model. Brier skill scores and attributes diagrams show that the skill of the MOS thunderstorm forecast system is good and that the severe thunderstorm forecast system generally is also skillful, compared to the 2000–04 climatology, and therefore, the preoperational system was made operational at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in 2008.