7.3 Review 2013-14 Fire and Severe Weather & Updates to SPC Forecast Products

Thursday, 19 June 2014: 11:30 AM
Alpine Ballroom (Resort at Squaw Creek)
Gregory W. Carbin, NOAA/NWS/WPC, College Park, MD; and R. Schneider and W. F. Bunting

An overview of significant tornado and fire weather events during 2013 and into 2014 will be conducted through the use of synoptic and mesoscale analysis. Forecasts for these events generated at the NWS Storm Prediction Center (SPC) will be reviewed by assessing the most valuable aspects of available model and forecaster-generated guidance. Some of the more significant events will be placed into historical perspective using severe storm and fire report data that is archived by SPC.

Recent changes to SPC's severe and fire weather outlooks will also be discussed. Recent severe weather outlook changes include the addition of two new descriptive categories as well as a summary section to the written product. Fire outlooks have introduced a more probabilistic approach that will be explained. Lastly, SPC watch product changes will be described. These changes are aimed at making the descriptive wording in the watch more accessible to the general public, and more closely aligned with forecaster confidence in severe weather occurrence.

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