Progress and Problems with Forecasting Orographic Precipitation over the Pacific Northwest and Southwest Canada (Invited)

Over the past two decades, there has been intense study of the nature and predictability of orographic precipitation over the Northwest U.S. Such studies included several fields experiments (IMPROVE 1, IMPROVE 2, COAST, CYCLES), over a decade of real-time, high-resolution regional numerical weather prediction, and dozens of observational and numerical case study investigations of orographic precipitation over the region. This study will review these studies, describe the current status of orographic precipitation modeling over the Northwest, and highlight some of the key scientific issues required for future advancement.