Verification and Further Development of an Operational Model for Forecasting the Probability of Frozen Precipitation

Abstract

Abstract An automated system for forecasting the conditional probability of frozen precipitation was put into operation by the National Weather Service in November 1972. The Model Output Statistics (MOS) concept was used to develop the system, and both teletypewriter and facsimile products have been distributed to field offices twice daily. In this paper, guidance forecasts from this system are compared to subjective (local) forecasts prepared at Weather Service Forecast Offices. The local forecasts have been archived since September 1973 as part of a combined aviation/public weather forecast verification program within the National Weather Service. The comparative verification between the guidance and locals for two different data samples shows the guidance has produced better forecasts for the 18, 30, and 42 h projections. In attempting to improve the operational system, we experimented with the Regression Estimation of Event Probabilities (REEP) screening technique. The operational system had been deve...