Anthony Hollingsworth's work and leadership in developing the ECMWF system provided extended forecasts of the tropics of unprecedented quality and resolution. The forecasts have proven a boon to large sections of the developing world providing for the first time forecasts of tropical cyclones on time scales from days to seasons, intraseasonal modes of variability and climate forecasts. I describe both Tony's own fundamental research and some of the applications work that his efforts have enabled through use of ECMWF data to forecast floods in Bangladesh, a project he encouraged especially.