The challenge trying to be solved
There is a strong demand for this new generation of predictions that bridge the gap between weather forecasts and long-range predictions to support climate-resilience and preparedness decision-making.
What is being done
Chris White is co-leading a new applications-focused science sub-project in collaboration with the UK Met Office that will explore the value of sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) forecasts and highlighting the opportunities and challenges facing their uptake.
Impact
The ongoing Real-Time Pilot which is making S2S predictions available to 15 selected institutions to develop best practice guidelines for producing impact-based forecasts of extreme events and sector-specific application-orientated tools that can be used to guide future S2S application development.
The future
- The project has recently seen the submission of an MSc dissertation titled ‘How are user-researcher co-development and engagement practises implemented to produce sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) forecasting applications in a real time pilot’ by Rebecca Simmonds as part of the MSc in Sustainability and Environmental Studies (see attached). Rebecca was co-supervised by Dr Chris White (Strathclyde) and Joanna Robbins (Met Office). Rebecca’s dissertation is currently being turned into a peer-review journal paper for submission later this year.
- Through this project, Dr Chris White has recently led the submission of a journal paper to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society titled ‘Advances in the application and utility of S2S predictions’ with ~60 international co-authors. This is in final review and is expected to be published in the next ~1 month.
- This project has led to a new EPSRC-funded PhD student starting with Dr Chris White from October 2021, Ms Lou Brett, who will be looking at using S2S predictions for the renewable energy sector.
- Beyond these activities, several other activities are planned, including a winter/training school session, papers, funding applications and other collaborative initiatives.
Contact
Dr Chris White, Senior Lecturer, chris.white@strath.ac.uk
Further details
Chris co-leads new Application sub-project of the World Meteorological Organization’s WWRP/WCRP S2S Prediction project with Joanna Robbins (Met Office). The Application sub-project includes the Real-Time Pilot. This is a new sub-project; the website is currently being updated.