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Wilmington, NC
 
 

Local forecast by
"City, St"
  

 

Enhanced Short Term Operations

Description
In an effort to improve detection and prediction of high impact events within the short term (generally the next 12 hours), the National Weather Service in Wilmington, NC will be experimenting with a new concept called "Enhanced Short Term Operations".

This new method of operation will have one meteorologist completely dedicated to the first 12 hours of the forecast, while other meteorologists focus on the mid term (generally 12 hours to 3 days in the future) and long-term (generally 4-7 days in the future) forecasts. This will allow meteorologists at the NWS in Wilmington, NC to provide a detailed forecast, which is more deterministic (avoids 50% chances of precipitation, for example, and instead better expresses whether it will or will not rain at a particular time) in the short term. This will better facilitate decision making on the part of our partners/users (such as other federal, state or local governments, emergency management, media, etc.) who rely on our forecasts.

 
Changes in Products/Services
In order to provide our partners/users with the latest information and convey more detail in the forecasts, some of our products have been adjusted and will be issued more frequently than in the past. Here are some issuance times and changes that will take place:

Products/Changes:

Zone Forecast Product (ZFP) | View Current Forecast
Coastal Waters Forecast (CWF) | View Current Forecast
Area Forecast Matrix (AFM) | View Current Forecast
Point Forecast Matrix (PFM) | View Current Forecast

-Issued routinely approximately every 3 hours
-More detail and greater use of local effects (i.e. at the beaches, near shore, etc.) in the first 24 hours
-One county/marine zone per zone grouping (not combining multiple counties/marine zones into one large forecast group)
-Additional cities in the PFM (at least 1 per county)

 

Area Forecast Discussion (AFD) | View Current Discussion

-Always contains the latest forecast reasoning out through 7 days
-During ongoing high-impact events, frequent updates will be issued to convey the latest thinking

View a Sample of the New Format...

 

Coded Cities Forecast (CCF) | View Current Forecast

-Additional cities in the CCF (at least 1 per county)

 

Fire Weather Planning Forecast (FWF) | View Current Forecast

-Routinely updated at 10 am

 
Internet Display of Detailed Forecasts
NDFD Example Image
NDFD Example Image		 The National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) will show the forecast graphically in 3-hour intervals during the short term period.
   
Hourly Weather Graph Example Image
Hourly Weather Graph Example Image		 The Hourly Weather Forecast Graph is one of the best ways of displaying the high detail forecast for your specific location on the internet.

Find out more about this and other ways of viewing the detailed forecast on the internet by clicking here...

 

New Resources Available to the NWS
The NWS in Wilmington, NC will use locally run high-resolution forecast models, local applications to better monitor current conditions and new verification procedures to provide feedback to forecasters to ensure that the forecasts are as accurate as possible.

 
Questions, Comments and Suggestions
Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please feel free to e-mail our webmaster at ilm.webmaster@noaa.gov or use our Website Survey.

 
National Weather Service
Weather Forecast Office Wilmington, NC
2015 Gardner Drive
Wilmington, NC 28405
(910) 762-4289

Page Author: 
Web Master's E-mail:  ilm.webmaster@noaa.gov
Page Last Modified: 11 October 2006 8:05 PM


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