The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) and the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET®) will host the 2013 Winter Weather Course from October 21 - November 1, 2013 at the COMET classroom facilities in Boulder, Colorado, USA.  The course continues to be an important component of the MSC/COMET training partnership building stronger links between atmospheric research and operational weather forecasting.

Representatives from all MSC Regions will participate.  In addition, representatives from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) will attend along with a few others from outside of North America.  Course instructors include professors from leading Canadian and U.S. universities and experts from both the MSC and the NWS.

The course focuses on winter season significant weather, from the synoptic scale to the mesoscale.  The ultimate goal of the course is to increase your three-dimensional understanding of phenomena and atmospheric processes associated with winter weather.  Equally important, we want you to retain this knowledge, apply it, and share it with fellow forecasters after the course.  To further enable this knowledge transfer, the course is organized so that much of the lecture material will be available for you to use in your offices as PowerPoint presentations and Web-based modules.

A mix of both lectures and labs make up the course.  Topics covered range from foundational material to specific applications of winter weather forecast techniques.  Topics include:

  • 3D Thinking
  • Analysis and Diagnosis
  • Cyclone Structure
  • NWP at Various Scales
  • Ensemble Prediction
  • Precipitation Typing
  • Isentropic Thinking
  • Satellite Applications
  • Lake/Ocean-Effect Snow
  • Snowfall Forecasting

As with previous Winter Weather courses, you will be asked to take an active role evaluating this year's course so we can continue improving it from year to year.  These evaluations will also be used to design other learning materials and methods to help fulfill the MSC goal of encouraging a sound scientific basis for the forecast process.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions regarding the course preparation, material, or logistics.  We hope you have a good and enjoyable learning experience.

— The MSC/COMET Winter Weather Course Team

Nic Major
nicolas.major@ec.gc.ca
MSC lead
Bryan Guarente
guarente@comet.ucar.edu
COMET facilitator

Tsvetomir Ross-Lazarov
tsvet@comet.ucar.edu
COMET facilitator