GFMC Links: Weather and Climate Forecasts

Climate Prediction Center (CPC)
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/
The CPC provides an El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) diagnostic discussion site! Important source for early warning of drought and fire weather related to El Niño occurrence.

Drought Monitoring and Early Warning Web Site
http://www.earlywarning.nl/
This site is operational since June 2001. The monitoring and early warning products are derived from METEOSAT with the energy and water balance processing system of EARS Environmental Analysis and Remote Sensing Ltd (EARS). This system generates maps of radiation, actual evapotranspiration and rainfall. This information is then fed into a crop growth module which generates a yield forecast. Contrary to many other satellite based sources of information, the products are quantitative and can be used directly to estimate crop yield reduction due to drought. Crop yield forecasts are given already 60-80 days after the start of the growing season.

Fire Weather Forecasts of the Storm Prediction Center (SPC)
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/fire_wx/index.html
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is part of the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The mission of SPC is to provide timely and accurate forecasts and watches for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes over the contiguous United States. The SPC also monitors heavy rain, heavy snow, and fire weather events across the U.S. and issues specific products for those hazards. SPC uses the most advanced technology and scientific methods available to achieve this goal. The purpose of the SPC Fire Weather Outlooks and meteorological Risk Categories are to indicate areas where dry dead fuels such as dry grass and dry timber and meteorological conditions (wind, relative humidity, temperature, and dry thunderstorms) might contribute to potentially dangerous wild fire behavior. The SPC does not forecast local meteorological conditions (i.e. local variability of relative humidity or the effects of terrain on wind direction and speed). In addition, slope of local terrain, types of fuels (fuel model), variability of fuels, and l ive fuel moisture content are not considered in detail.

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
http://www.ecmwf.int/
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an international organisation supported by 21 European States. The seasonal forecast project has not reached an operational status. Nonetheless, the ECMWF Council has decided to make a range of products from the experimental program of seasonal prediction available on this site. Any user of the seasonal forecasting products contained within this server accepts all responsibility for the use. In particular, no claims of accuracy or precision of the forecasts will be made by the user which is inappropriate to their scientific basis. Seasonal precipitation and 2-m temperature charts are available for the tropics, East Asia, Africa and South America. Important source for early warning of drought and fire weather.

Experimental Climate Prediction Centre (ECPC)
http://ecpc.ucsd.edu/m2s/m2s_ECPC_forecasts.html
The Experimental Climate Prediction Centre of the Scripps institution of Oceanography provides daily updated global to regional fire weather forecasts. Background and methodology of  the forecasts are described in detail by J.Roads et al. 1997: Int. Forest Fire News No.17. ECPC also provides an experimental El Nino Forecast updated every first week of the month (http://meteora.ucsd.edu/~pierce/elnino/elnino.html).

International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI)
http://iri.ldeo.columbia.edu/climate/cid/
The IRI Climate Information Digest provides a monthly summary of recent climate events, impacts, and seasonal forecasts. Important source for early warning of drought and fire weather.

Riverside Fire Lab
http://www.rfl.psw.fs.fed.us/met/MFWF.html
Current U.S. Fire Weather Forecast Maps are provided by the Riverside Fire Lab including maps of temperature, relative humidity, the Chandler Burning Index as well as the precipitation frequency.

Weather Channel
http://www.weather.com
Global weather forecast can be obtained by the weather channel homepage.

World Meteorological Service
http://www.wmo.ch/home.html
The WMO provides a list of National Weather Services of those members which are equipped with Web or Gopher Servers.

USDA Agricultural and Weather
http://www.usda.gov/oce/waob/jawf/poplinks.htm
The website of the USDA Agricultural Weather and Climate homepage offers an interesting page in which information on crop production and weather is provided. Additionally issues like fire, drought, El Nino are addressed for various countries, including South East Asia.

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