The NOAA/NWS/NCEP Workstation Eta model with 22km horizontal resolution has been implemented at Climate Prediction Center for monitoring the short-term weather, in general, and precipitation forecast, in particular. Currently, the model runs on several domains including Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa, South Asia and West Asia with a forecast period of 72 hours at six-hour intervals. A higher resolution (12km) Eta model has also been implemented for the Afghanistan and Pakistan region. The input data are derived from the NCEP/GFS forecasts at three-hour intervals and incorporates the Betts-Miller-Janjic (BMJ) convection parameterization scheme. The forecast output products and data are made available to several FEWS-Net countries in Africa and on a public domain.

The quantitative precipitation forecast verification of the Workstation Eta model over the domains of East and West Africa for the 2003 rainy season (June-October) is also described. The QPF of the Workstation Eta model is verified using point-to-grid box comparisons by utilizing rainfall data from Global Telecommunication System surface weather stations located within the model domains. The objective of verification is to document the bias of the Workstation Eta output parameters, which are used in operational applications within the Africa Desk and FEWS-Net groups at NOAA/CPC.