Forecasting Atmospheric Rivers along the West Coast Using an ECMWF-based WRF

We will present a case study using an ECWMF-based WRF with a 3-km resolution, focusing on model comparisons of the events surrounding the January 30-February 2, 2019 flooding rainfall in the Los Angeles area. Increasing the resolution of the 9-km ECMWF Deterministic model can help forecast in areas with complex terrain while taking advantage of the superior initialization of the ECMWF’s 4D-VAR assimilation process over the open ocean, where the 3-km NAM struggles.