WRF Modeling and the use of the NCEP GEFS in operational weather forecasting

Regional Training Center
South African Weather Service
3-12 October, 2007

As part of the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) commitment to capacity building within the framework of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) and the WMO Voluntary Cooperation Program (VCP), NWS and the South Africa Weather Service (SAWS) are jointly organizing a training workshop on the weather research forecast (WRF) modeling and the use of the NCEP global ensemble forecast system (GEFS) in operational weather forecasting for eastern and southern Africa. The workshop will be held at the regional training facility of the SAWS in Pretoria, South Africa, 3-12 October 2007. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the US Agency for International Development are co-sponsoring agencies for the workshop. The objective of the workshop is to support capacity building efforts on the use of numerical weather prediction (NWP) products in Africa. Participation in the 2007 training workshop is limited to 10 countries in eastern and southern Africa to serve as a test bed for building capacity in limited area modeling in Africa.

The workshop consists of four-day training on WRF modeling, 3-6 October 2007, and 5-day training on the use of the GEFS in operational weather forecasting, 8-12 October 2007. It is intended for professional meteorologists aspiring to become NWP specialists and to operational weather forecasters who seek to gain understanding and proficiency in the use of ensemble prediction systems (EPS) in operational weather forecasting.

The workshop is framed such that each participating NMHSs will acquire a state of the art desktop workstation to support limited area modeling capability in eastern and southern Africa.