An automated system for archival, retrieval, and analysis of real-time forecating information, both subjective and objective, has been implemented at the Tulsa Weather Forecast Office (WFO). A primary goal of this system is to create a performance support system (PSS) which would offer forecasters subjective and objective forecasting guidance in post-event and real-time. This implementation of Coach builds on the successes and attempts to resolve limitations of the original Coach program used at the NWS Olympic Weather Support Office (OWSO) in the summers of 1995 and 1996.
The Tulsa WFO implementation of Coach is a client-server application running via a web browser. The application accesses several local and remote databases, such as forecaster comments, archived satellite images, and precipitation analyses. This platform and interface were chosen so that a) Coach could be run on local or wide area network clients as well as via the internet and b) Coach could be easily moved to the AWIPS environment.
At the time of this writing, the main components of Coach are the intial data entry, the followup entry, and the data
retriever and viewer. The initial data entry section is where forecasters enter subjective information about the
current forecast (e.g. What is the current synoptic and expected mesoscale pattern? What are the problems of the
day?, What subjective guidance or "rules of thumb" did you use?). The followup entry section of Coach is designed
to be entered approximately 24 hours after the initial entry was entered, usually by the same forecaster. Questions
posed at this stage include: "What happened over the last 24 hours?", "What was forecast well and why?", and
"What could have been forecast better and why?" The data retrieval and viewing component yields a summary page
containing the intial and followup forecaster entries as well as objective verification of forecaster versus model
versus observed parameters for a specified 24-hour period. Links to special data viewers can quickly display
archived data for that day, such as satellite images, Stage III precipitation analyses, and text products. This paper
will discuss these aspects of Coach as well as operational implications and future applications.