Nowcasting winter weather in complex terrain—Experiences from SNOW-V10

The field phase of a new World Weather Research Project (WWRP) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called the Science of Nowcasting Olympic Weather for Vancouver 2010 (SNOW-V10) was conducted in BC during Jan-Mar 2010. Short term weather forecasting or Nowcasting, which concentrates on 0-6 hr predictions, had been the focus of several WWRP projects associated with the Sydney-2000 and the Beijing-2008 Summer Olympic Games. SNOW–V10 is the first similar project to look at winter weather. It is designed to produce better techniques to nowcast cloud, fog, visibility, precipitation type and amount, and wind and turbulence in mountainous terrain. This was done by using state-of-the-art numerical modeling systems, new on-site surface and remote sensing observing systems, as well as Nowcasting systems which blend observations and model predictions into improved short term forecasts. Preliminary results of the field measurements are now available. This paper will give a short summary of some of the results, discuss some of the measurement difficulties, introduce some of the Nowcast products developed, and highlight some interesting case studies for situations which are difficult to accurately forecast.