The National Weather Service (NWS) is developing software to create a National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) of official NWS forecasts. The NDFD will contain a seamless mosaic of digital forecasts from more than 120 NWS field offices and service centers. The NDFD will be made available to all NWS customers and partners as web images and as downloadable data. The availability of digital data on a national scale allows for the creation of a wide range of graphic, text, and image products.

This paper describes the design and ongoing development of the NDFD. In concert with the national deployment of the Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS), digital forecasts are being sent to the NDFD central server and stored in a relational database. From these individual submissions, national mosaics are produced and updated.

The process by which forecast mosaics are transformed into NDFD products is illustrated. Products will be created on the NDFD central server and distributed via national and regional NWS web farms. Software used to create NDFD products and provide data access services is discussed. Future enhancements to the NDFD are presented.