Evaluation of NWC SAF Precipitation Products for the Adriatic Region

Izidor Pelajić, P. Mikuš Jurković, I. Smiljanić, N. Strelec Mahović

Meteorological and Hydrological Service Croatia

NWC SAF 2015 User’s Workshop | 24-26 February 2015 | Madrid, Spain 1

MOTIVATION:

• Croatian Adriatic coast is one of the rainiest areas in Europe

• Lack of radar coverage along the coast

• No precipitation data over the sea

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Composite radar coverage

NWC SAF at DHMZ

• NWC SAF precipitation products used since 2012• Products calculated on two domains – Europe and Croatia

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Western EuropeCentral Europe-Mediterranean

Validation efforts• Verification still being performed– currently on case-to-case basis

• Comparison with:– radar data where available– Raingauges data – Aladin and ECMWF model forecasts

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11 September 2014 – 09 UTC

Torrential rain in Dalmatia (Vodice)Up to 280 mm/6 h

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ŠIBENIK

11 September 2014 – 09 UTCNWC SAF 2015 User’s Workshop | 24-26 February 2015 | Madrid, Spain

8

PGE 14 PGE 05

KNIN

503020151075321

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PGE 14 PGE 05

PGE 04

503020151075321

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PGE 05

PGE 04

PGE 14

Comparison with model data

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• PGE 14 Hourly accum.

• ECMWF 9 – 12 UTC accum.

9-10 10-11 11-12

Summary• From case to case observations it seems that precipitation

products from SAFNWC tend to underestimate low precipitation rates

• For intensive precipitation cases there is a signifficant difference between PGE14 (physical retrieval) and PGE05 products

• PGE05 seems to underestimate hourly accumulation rates • PGE14 seem to have more structures (features) in

precipitation field

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Unrelated notes on NWC SAF

• Winds• Extrapolation • Reprocessing old cases/dates• Documentation

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