Forecast Tools
Throughout the years, students tend to visit the simalar websites for forecasting weather phenomena. Here, we have listed valuable online rescourses that SLU students tend to frequently use.
Weather.gov is a great place to see what the forecasters at the NWS are thinking. The forecast discussions provided are typically very informative and a great tool. It is suggested ALWAYS using this website when forecasting.
The Storm Prediction Center is a great tool for nowcasting as it provides links to
forecasting tools such as the SPC Mesoscale Analysis, Mesoscale Discussions,
Surface and Upper Air Maps (00z and 12z), Observed Soundings, and Convective Outlooks.
The SPC is best utilized during times when deep moist convection is anticipated.
The WPC is good for short term surface forecasts of fronts as well as a general synoptic summary of what the major weather players are across the country. You can also find the model diagnostic discussion on this site. You will want to use this to help guide you when you are trying to decide what model(s) to use for your forecast.
This is the Model Guidance user interface that Dr. Graves works on. You can examine both the GFS and NAM from the current run or out to 6 runs prior. It is extremely user friendly and displays almost any field you could ask for.
This is the analog website run by Dr. Graves. Analogs are an extremely useful forecasting tool, but it’s important to remember that analogs SHOULD NOT be used as a forecast but rather used as an informative tool. Dr. Graves also provides information on how to use analogs.
College of DuPage NeXt Generation Weather Lab
This is a expertly crafted, visually pleasing webpage run by the College of DuPage. It provides GFS, NAM, NAM-Nest, HRRR, and RAP model guidence. Additionally, this website has recently implemented GOES-16 and NEXRAD WSR-88D data.
You can select different times and variables and investigate each member and the ensemble mean. Good to show uncertainty in timing and amount of precip.
You can chose model area and model type. Provides access to short range models (HRRR, RAP, SREF), CONUS models (GFS, NAM), and regional models
High Resolution Rapid Refresh Model (HRRR)
Short-term 3km forecast model that is run hourly. Great for nowcasting/short term forecasting. There is an experimental (HRRRv2) and an operational (HRRRv1) version of the model. Both can be accessed from this website.
Interface for RAP, NAM, and GFS models. May be used for skew-t forecasts. You can drop a pointer anywhere on the CONUS and a model generated skew-t is displayed. This is very helpful in forecasting severe weather and precipitation type.
Many useful tools like other websites. What makes this site unique is historical weather observations. This is great for verification of forecasts and to check to see what temperature precipitation records are for a given day. It also provides monthly climate information.
A NOAA website for MOS forecasts. Great user interface.
AWIPS II and NMAP
NMAP2 and AWIPS are operational products the NWS and SPC uses.
In the Synoptic Classroom (O'Neil 300), these tools can be acessed.
These programs will be used in meteorology classes. You should know how to use it and what tools
are available through it.
AWIPS II can be access by typing "runAWIPS" in the terminal window.
NMAP can be acessed by typing "nmap2" in the terminal window.