Feedback on the use of ECWMF forecast products available to SOFF supported countries

Feedback on the use of ECWMF forecast products available to SOFF supported countries

by Tshering Lhamo -
Number of replies: 1

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) offers free access to its "ecCharts" for all WMO Members, along with additional forecast data and products at 0.1 degrees specifically for SOFF beneficiary countries. Access to these additional forecast data and products is currently limited to those countries that were programmed by the SOFF Steering Committee in the first and second batches. By 2027, these additional products will be accessible to all WMO Members.

Peer advisors are encouraged to share feedback or questions regarding the use of these ECMWF products. The SOFF Secretariat will consolidate this feedback and relay it to ECMWF.

In reply to Tshering Lhamo

Feedback on the use of SOFF-dedicated ECWMF high-resolution dataset

by Elinah Khasandi Kuya -
Ensuring that the shared ECMWF data is received, well understood, and utilized would be beneficial. While ECMWF may believe they have fulfilled all requirements, the countries we support were still awaiting guidance from them to begin using the data . This may be the case in other countries.
In addition to being aware that there may be a communication barrier due to cultural differences, ECMWF can think about designating a specific contact person that the met offices can get in touch with and ask directly if they need assistance.  Nonetheless, some key issues specific to SOFF identified during MET Norway capacity building with DCCMS (Malawi) regarding the use of the SOFF-dedicated ECMWF dataset.
- Precipitation data which is crucial is lacking
- It would be helpful with guidelines including:
  • stating file format (grib)
  • links to documentation on how to handle grib data by ECMWF
  • stating what the file names mean, i.e. connect file names with the information on the soff page that explains which files contain surface data, which contains model level, etc.
  • Also state what the numbers in the file names mean. 
  • stating that there is one time step per file etc