In March 2001, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO) at Tulsa, Oklahoma began issuing all of its basic products with the Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS). IFPS is the latest version of software from the NWS which generates all current and future products entirely from a single digital database (Ruth, 2000).

IFPS consists of three complimentary applications to make a suite of forecast products: the Matrix Editors, the Model Interpretation Tool, and the Graphical Forecast Editor (GFE). Although the applications generally compliment one another, they do allow for field offices and individual forecasters to develop very different forecasting methodologies using IFPS.

Before the use of IFPS, the Tulsa office had been using a zone-based approach for forecasting using the previous version of digital database software, the Interactive Computer Worded Forecast system (ICWF) since 1997. The grid-based forecasting approach was only possible with the new IFPS released in early 2001.

This paper describes the problems and successes of using a grid-based approach to forecasting at the Tulsa office. Training and specific methodologies are presented as well as prototype modernized products and forecaster feedback on the software.