In an effort to help forecasters interpret and analyze severe storms, a need has been recognized to centralize and consolidate important information about severe storms which is critical to the short-term forecast and warning processes. A software package, currently referred to as Waring Coach, is being designed at NSSL to aid forecasters in diagnosing and analyzing severe weather events. This plentiful data about severe storms and their characteristics must be delivered in a highly efficient and concise manner in order to serve as useful guidance to NWS forecasters during forecasting procedures and warning operations.
The current design of Warning Coach breaks the system into three main components:
1) Radar Sampling Limitations- illustrate the shortcomings
and difficulties in examining radar data and offer
mitigating suggestions and advice
2) Forecasting Aid- provide guidance concerning the
forecasting on storm initiation, evolution, and morphology
3) Conceptual Models- illustrations of severe storms and
their characteristics based on storm type and a quick
reference guide to papers whose material is related to these
storms
Each of these modules will have access to a database of severe storm events. This database will be "canned" in initial versions of Warning Coach, but will be dynamic (cases added by forecasters) in future versions of the system.
The complete software specifications of Warning Coach are
not yet complete, but they will be finalized with the goal of an
eventual AWIPS implementation in mind