The first MSC/COMET mountain weather course

Field research in mountain meteorology continues to provide valuable data for scientific publications. It is estimated that since the end of the field project in 1999, the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP) has spawned close to 200 MAP-related papers. For the operational meteorological community, the challenge has been transferring this wealth of knowledge to the forecast environment, so that theoretical concepts can be applied to forecasting the weather in complex terrain.

Building upon a cooperative arrangement between the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) and the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET), a residence course on mountain weather was developed in 2005. This inaugural one-week course on mountain meteorology was held in the COMET classroom March 20-24, 2006. The objectives of this course were primarily two-fold: to provide operational forecasters exposure to current research and theory from experts in the field of mountain meteorology; and to provide training for forecasters involved in the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

Course participants included 20 Operational forecaster (students) and 18 presenters. Forecasters came from weather centres across Canada and the Western Region of the National Weather Service (NWS). Presenters included several from US universities as well as experts from MSC and the NWS. The course was made up of a series of lectures and laboratory sessions led by operational experts. Course topics included: Microphysics of Orographic Clouds and Precipitation; Observations and Theory of Orographic Precipitation, Thermally Driven Flows; Dynamically Driven Flows; Stratified Flows and Precipitation, NWP & Forecasting Orographic Precipitation; Snow Properties and Avalanches; Remote Sensing; Overview of the Olympic Forecast Programs for the 2002 and 2010 Olympics, Western U.S. Snowstorm Dynamics, and Observational Uncertainty.. A second course is scheduled for December 2006 at COMET.