Exploring the Watch-to-Warning Space: Experimental Outlook Performance during the 2019 Spring Forecasting Experiment in NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed

Abstract

During the 2019 Spring Forecasting Experiment in NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed, two NWS forecasters issued experimental probabilistic forecasts of hail, tornadoes, and severe convective wind using NSSL’s Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS). The aim was to explore forecast skill in the timeframe between severe convective watches and severe convective warnings during the peak of the spring convective season. Hourly forecasts issued during 2100 UTC–0000 UTC, valid from 0100–0200 UTC demonstrate how forecasts change with decreasing lead time. Across all 13 cases in this study, the descriptive outlook statistics (e.g., mean outlook area, number of contours) change slightly and the measures of outlook skill (e.g., Fractions Skill Score, reliability) improve incrementally with decreasing lead time. WoFS updraft helicity (UH) probabilities also improve slightly and less consistently with decreasing lead time, though both the WoFS and the forecasters generated skillful forecasts throughout. Larger skill differences with lead time emerge on a case-by-case basis, illustrating cases where forecasters consistently improved upon WoFS guidance, cases where the guidance and the forecasters recognized small-scale features as lead time decreased, and cases where the forecasters issued small areas of high probabilities using guidance and observations. While forecasts generally “honed in” on the reports with slightly smaller contours and higher probabilities, increased confidence could include higher certainty that severe weather would not occur (e.g., lower probabilities). Long-range (1–5 h) WoFS UH probabilities were skillful, and where the guidance erred, forecasters could adjust for those errors and increase their forecasts’ skill as lead time decreased.