Status report on Rapid Refresh development

The first stage implementation of the Rapid Refresh (RR), to replace the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) as the operational National Weather Service situational awareness model, is scheduled for implementation at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction during 2010. This talk is intended as an overview of RR development progress, and will describe the configuration of the RR that is currently in testing at NOAA/ESRL for implementation at NCEP, review aspects of current performance, and show examples of recent forecasts.