A Case Study of the Persistence of Weather Forecast Model Errors

Abstract

Decision makers could frequently benefit from information about the amount of uncertainty associated with a specific weather forecast. Automated numerical weather prediction models provide deterministic weather forecast values with no estimate of the likely error. This case study examines the day-to-day persistence of forecast errors of basic surface weather parameters for four sites in northern Utah. Although exceptionally low or high forecast errors on one day are more likely to be associated with a similar quality forecast the following day, the relationship is not considered strong enough to provide beneficial guidance to users without meteorological expertise. Days resulting in average forecast errors showed no persistence in the quality of the subsequent day's forecast. More sophisticated methods are needed to generate and portray weather forecast uncertainty information.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA431731

Entities

People

  • Barbara Sauter

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artillery
  • Case Studies
  • Classification
  • Dew Point
  • Elevation
  • Errors
  • High Performance Computing
  • Information Science
  • Meteorology
  • Military Research
  • Standards
  • Uncertainty
  • Urban Areas
  • Weather
  • Weather Forecasting
  • Weather Stations
  • Wind Direction

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.