The NOAA HWT Spring Forecasting Experiment is a yearly experiment that investigates the use of convection-allowing model forecasts as guidance for the prediction of severe convective weather. A variety of model output is examined and evaluated daily during the experiment and experimental severe weather forecasts are created and verified. The variety of model output allows us to explore different types of guidance, including products derived from both ensembles and deterministic forecasts.
The 2019 Spring Forecasting Experiment will be held from April 29th through May 31st in the HWT facility at the National Weather Center in Norman. The Experiment is scheduled to run Monday through Friday from 8am to 4pm, with some additional activities to 8pm. The Experiment will continue the focus on probabilistic forecast generation over shorter time periods than current Storm Prediction Center operational products. A major effort has been made to coordinate convection-allowing ensemble configurations between contributing agencies, resulting in a Community Leveraged Unified Ensemble (CLUE) containing 96 members with 3 km grid spacing. This ensemble will be used heavily in the forecast process and be used in verification exercises to compare different ensemble design strategies. More information about the unique CLUE members can be found in the 2019 Operations Plan.