The aim of this page is to provide information and resources for the training courses OP-I and OP-II. The courses are suitable for those who have a genuine interest in ECMWF forecasting products and want to exploit fully the potential of these products in their daily duties, whether they are producing forecast bulletins or taking decisions that are affected by weather phenomena.
The courses are a mixture of standard classroom lectures and practical activities where real weather cases are analysed in details and attendees are expected to report on at the end of the training week. Networking among the attendees is encouraged by allocating time for the participants to present their work and share their previous experience with ECMWF products.
The courses are assessed by means of an online survey which allows the participants to include their feedback and suggestions for improvements. The learning outcomes are assessed separately using a self-evaluation method.
Pre-course programme
A list of pre-course activities is indicated below. Please note that these activities are integral part of the course and by completing them you will be able to get the most benefit out of the training week.
- Introduce yourself to the other course participants and to the lecturers (click here to go to the forum)
- Prepare a poster (click here for guidance, maximum size for poster: A0)
- Go trough the Practical activity: Choose a verification technique and apply it to your selected case (click here for guidance and document uploading facility)
- Browse through the list of suggested readings (see 'Suggested readings' in the list 'Resources' panel below)
- Listen to the slidecast (click here to start the MP4, if it does not start read instructions below in the 'Resources' panel)
timetable
Blog Posts
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read about the course last year (2012)
created by
Unknown User (moa)Sept 12, 2013
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Snow in Spain (1/3/2013)
created by
Unknown User (moa)Mar 02, 2013
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Floods in Italy and Greece (February 2013)
created by
Unknown User (moa)Feb 25, 2013
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Addis Ababa -- rain
created by
Unknown User (moa)Oct 03, 2012
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Jelawat
created by
Unknown User (moa)Sept 29, 2012
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Flash Floods in Spain
created by
Unknown User (moa)Sept 29, 2012
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UK floods
created by
Unknown User (moa)Sept 27, 2012
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Nadine and uncertainty
created by
Unknown User (moa)Sept 27, 2012
OP-i (Download bigger photo here)
OP-ii (Download bigger photo here)
SLIDECASTs
if you cannot play it, please download the MP4 file (right click and choose 'Save link as' ) and play it locally with Windows media player, or quicktime or VLC (free software)
Suggested readings
A number of articles are available here on various aspects of NWP, ECMWF model changes, medium and extended range forecast.
Case studies (coming soon!)
Winter time visit to Budapest: An adventurous family is planning to visit Budapest in the middle of winter. Their plan is to explore the city and also to do some weather permitting hiking in the surrounding hills. As they travel with a toddler they would go hiking only in positive temperature range without too much precipitation. They need to rent a baby carrier for hiking from a company in Budapest and that costs significantly more coming closer to the event. The students will be asked to give weather forecasts (including probabilistic information to support the decision on whether to buy the carrier in advance or not) for this family using ECMWF forecast products from several weeks to few days in advance.
Case 5
Focusing on using a wide range of ECMWF products, here is your challenge: plan the optimum ship route in TC conditions in the NE Atlantic.
Case 6
The Christmas of 2013 was very mild in southern Scandinavia and windy in western Europe, caused by a strong positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). People started to wonder whether there would be any winter at all. In this case we will look for a possible transition to cold conditions in the long-range forecasts (Part 1). When a possible transition approaching we will look into the possible scenarios for large-scale flow (Part 2). We will study the forecasts of a cyclone over southern Scandinavia (Part 3) and the connecting snowfall (Part 4). In the last part (Part 5), the forecasts will be evaluated and the limitations of the forecast discussed. The aim of the case study is to familiarise with different forecast products from ECMWF and also discuss the limitations of the forecasts. Check this out!
Lectures
You can download lectures from here:
- click on the title to get the mp4 (if you cannot play it, please download the MP4 file by right clicking and choosing 'Save link as' . Play it locally with Windows media player, or quicktime or VLC (free software))
- click on 'pdf' to get the file in pdf
Lecturer | Title | Lecturer | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
A. Ghelli | Introducing ECMWF | L. Isaksen | |
P. Bechtold | F. Prates | Forecasting tropical cyclones in the medium range (pdf) | |
J. Bidlot | D. Richardson | ||
M. Dahoui | C. Sahin | Introduction to ecCharts | |
L. Ferranti | I. Tsonevsky | ||
| R. Forbes | Clouds and precipitation (pdf) | L. Magnuson | |
| T. Hewson | Extratropical Cyclones and their tracking (pdf) |
EUMETCAL e-training module on verification:
The link below will take you to an e-training module on verification methods. There are four parts to it: Introduction, Verification of continuous variables, Verification of categorical forecasts and Verification of probability and ensemble forecasts. This module will help you to learn about verification techniques for deterministic and probability forecast. Try to complete all the parts and in case you run out of time look at the Introduction, Verification of categorical forecasts and Verification of probability and ensemble forecasts. There will be a verification session during the training week when verification techniques will be discussed starting from the exercises you have done in the module and your practical verification activity:
The posters presented by the students are here!
Thomas Jordi & Alex Giordano (Switzerland)
Anne Solveig Andersen & Jan Erik Bradt (Sweden)
Gabriela Cueva Tascon (Spain)
Fabien Rinaldi (France – EDF)
Martin Lindberg (Denmark)
Aleksandra Arsic & Milada Vuckovic (Serbia)
Angeliki Marinaki & Kostantina Zeini (Greece)
Gerrit Schraa (Netherlands)
Janne R T Hansen (Denmark)
Dealing with 'jumps' in the forecast (Instructor-led practical session)
In this interactive session we will focus on apparent jumps, between runs, in ECMWF forecasts and how forecasters can perhaps deal with them. Examples will be included. The point will also be made that a sound forecasting system has to exhibit 'jumpy behaviour' from time to time.
Case 1
After nice summer weather over England during the last week of August a sign of significant change to colder autumnal weather conditions appears in the high-resolution forecast (HRES) for the first weekend of September. Starting from that HRES forecast our task will be to assess what will happen with the weather during the first weekend of September over England adding ensemble forecasts to assess the uncertainty of the HRES. We are particularly interested in the weather forecast for Reading area as well. Approaching the first weekend of September we will try to forecast the weather conditions over the UK till the end of September using ECMWF extended-range forecast.
Case 2
Floods in Italy: how could ECMWF products be used to help the forecasters?
Case 3
The students will be asked to construct forecast guidance for a cycle race around South Wales, for a summer-time situation, using a wide range of ECMWF products, that correspond to lead times between 45 days and 1 day.