Local, Local, Local... Taking Futurecasting to the Micro-Level

Weather Central, Inc. 5727 Tokay Boulevard Madison, Wisconsin 53719 608-274-5789 Bill Boss Regional Account Manager, Meteorologist "Local, Local, Local…Taking Futurecasting to the Micro-Level"

Weather Central, Inc. introduced the A.D.O.N.I.S. FutureCast® computer model in the spring of 1997. The model is based on the UW-NMS Mesoscale Model and output is used by Weather Central customers to create broadcast quality graphical displays of future weather conditions. As the demand for hyper-local modeling increased, Weather Central introduced A.D.O.N.I.S MicroCast in the summer of 1999. MicroCast utilizes the same model dynamics, but is run on-site at the television stations. This gives the user full control over domain, resolution, and model output parameter to provide high quality local model output. This presentation will give a brief history and overview of the current MicroCast model. The current user interface will be reviewed as well as model output in both VIS-5D and MesoMOS formats. Examples of MicroCast vs. FutureCast output will be highlighted along with a summary explaining limitations and future model plans.