The 3.5-day virtual course looks at the science of QPF for intense precipitation events.The course will focus on rainfall that triggers rapid hydrologic responses in drainage basins, with an emphasis on flash flood producing storms. The material will focus mostly on warm-season convective events, but also include cool season mesoscale processes that lead to intense rainfall and snowmelt. Subtopics will explore interpretation of atmospheric anomalies, understanding NWP guidance, spatial verification methods, identifying and forecasting warm rain processes, forecasting storm initiation and propagation, orographics, remote sensing tool, situational awareness, and societal impacts.Questions of precipitation intensity, duration, and area will be discussed in the context of some recent significant events.

Assessing a Portfolio of Approaches for Producing Climate Change Information to Support Adaptation Decisions


This workshop will help characterize the strengths, limitations, variability, and uncertainties of approaches for producing and using climate change information to inform US Federal water resources adaptation planning and operations. Decisions about climate change adaptation measures to enhance the resilience of the infrastructure, planning, and operation of water-related resources in the US require reliable information about the variability and uncertainty of probable climate change effects at the spatiotemporal scales where the decisions are taken. A large portfolio of possible approaches to produce and apply climate change information for water resource issues has been developed, and many of those approaches are in use now. Each method or analytical technique in this portfolio brings its set of uncertainties and particular deficiencies, some of which are large or only partly characterized and poorly quantified. However, agencies currently lack best practice guidelines for helping them assess and choose the most appropriate approaches and techniques for their particular sets of adaptation decisions.

For these reasons, Federal agencies with water resource missions must develop guidelines for producing and using climate change information appropriately to support their variously scaled adaptation decisions. These guidelines will not dictate the individual approaches to be taken. Rather, they will help agencies develop a set of best practices for assessing the strengths and limits of the various approaches to using climate information for their decision choice-points. In addition, the guidelines will be structured to be flexible enough to apply to current state-of-the-science information as well as to future climate science developments.

The annual MSC/COMET Winter Weather Residence course provides an opportunity for forecasters to learn more about current trends and techniques in winter weather forecasting. The course will be conducted in Boulder, CO from October 18-29 2010.
NWS Travel Code: 20-02-0000-06-93-00-00 J8M5J10 PWN
This course provides an in-depth look at the surface energy budget and how the use of this knowledge can improve boundary layer forecasts. It is offered as a follow-up to COMAP 2010.
This 4-day virtual class offering looks at the science of quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF). Students will participate in synchronous presentations, interactions, and laboratory exercises lead by instructors in both the operational and research communities including HPC, RFC, and WFO perspectives.
The COMET Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction course (COMAP) was initiated in 1991 to give NWS Science and Operations Officers (SOOs) the tools necessary to conduct on-station scientific research and training. Taught at the graduate level, the course includes seminars by visiting scientists and training professionals. Laboratory exercises that support the lecture material are another critical component to the COMAP course. In addition to providing an in-depth review of mesoscale meteorology, the course also will guide the participant through the myriad of available professional development resources.

Travel code: 0-02-0000-06-93-00-00 H8M5J10 P2X
Registration fee: $70.00USD
This 3-day workshop is designed primarily for forecasters and Service Hydrologists. It will look into the hydrologic processes of flash floods and the current state of the art with respect to Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (QPE). The participant will gain a more thorough understanding of the hydrologic impacts of different soil types, land use, and slope. Case Review exercises will use the Flash Flood Monitoring and Prediction (FFMP) software. The course will cover flash flood topics such as distributed modeling, flash flood guidance, river ice jams, debris flows, and urbanization.

Travel authorization code is: 20-02-0000-06-93-00-00 H8M5J10 P6Z
Registration fee is: $20.00

As of March 2010 changes in forming a new Joint Polar Program (old NPOESS) and a refocus for the NWS SRSST have resulted in changed plans for the 2010 satellite meetings planned for May in Boulder. It has been decided that we will not hold the 7th Annual Curriculum Workshop this May and the SRSST will also not meet in Boulder as previously planned. The GOES-R Proving Ground meeting is still planned for Boulder, but the dates are now set for Tuesday and Wednesday May 18 and 19. Following the Proving Ground meeting there will be a 1-day meeting on 20 May to discuss satellite training plans, status and issues. It is envisioned that PG meeting attendees will stay for all 3-days of meetings.

The Proving Ground meeting is being organized by Jim Gurka and Steve Goodman. The meetings will be hosted by COMET and held in the COMET classroom in Foothills Lab 2 Building in Boulder.

Note: participation is by invitation only. If you have any questions please contact Wendy Abshire at (303) 497-8477.

The five-day Climate Variability and Change virtual course is designed for operational meteorologists and hydrologists. The course goal is to increase understanding of key climate variability topics and climate change science.