Towards custom made seasonal/decadal forecasting
Abstract
Climate indices offer the possibility to deliver information to the end user that can be easily applied to their field of work. For instance, a 3-monthly mean average temperature does not say much about the Heating Degree Days of a season, or how many frost days there are to be expected. Hence, delivering aggregated climate information can be more useful to the consumer than just raw data. In order to ensure that the end-users actually get what they need, the providers need to know what exactly they need to deliver. Hence, the specific user-needs have to be identified. In the framework of EUPORIAS, interviews with the end-user were conducted in order to learn more about the types of information that are needed. But also to investigate what knowledge exists among the users about seasonal/decadal forecasting and in what way uncertainties are taken into account. It is important that we gain better knowledge of how forecasts/predictions are applied by the end-user to their specific situation and business. EUPORIAS, which is embedded in the framework of EU FP7, aims exactly to improve that knowledge and deliver very specific forecasts that are custom made. Here we present examples of seasonal forecasts and their skill of several climate impact indices with direct relevance for specific economic sectors, such as energy. The results are compared to the visualization of conventional depiction of seasonal forecasts, such as 3 monthly average temperature tercile probabilities and the differences are highlighted.
- Publication:
-
EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014EGUGA..16.9907M