World Meteorological Organization Symposium on Nowcasting - WMO

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FOREWORD
The mission of the <strong>World</strong> Weather Research Programme (WWRP) of the <strong>World</strong>
<strong>Meteorological</strong> Organisation (WMO) is to advance society’s ability to cope with high impact
weather. This is achieved through research focussed on improving the accuracy and
utilisation of weather prediction techniques. Nowcasting forms an important component of
weather forecasting given it represents the stage providing the most up to date and specific
meteorological information. Virtually all members of WMO provide a nowcasting service
given their responsibilities related to severe weather and a range of other high impact events.
Given the importance of nowcasting, the WWRP strategy supports an active research
program aimed at advancing the science of nowcasting for use by members nations within
the WMO framework. Forecast demonstration projects, research and development projects
and meetings enabling the exchange of information between researchers, operational
forecasters, and end-users form integral parts of the initiative.
For over twenty years there were no regular large international fora devoted to nowcasting.
To this end WWRP supported the first International <strong>Symposium</strong> on Nowcasting and Very
Short Range Forecasting in 2005 hosted by Meteo France in Toulouse. This meeting
continues that approach, moving to Canada to again provide the largest international forum
devoted to primarily to exploring opportunities for improving the science of very short term
forecasting. In this case, the nowcasting of high impact winter weather is of particular interest
as well advancing the application of numerical weather prediction techniques to nowcasting.
The nowcasting symposium represents an important event on the WMO calender contributing
to the overall objective of building a seamless approach to weather forecasting.
Tom Keenan - Chair, WWRP Nowcasting Working Group
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