A Note on RAFS Forecasts of Measurable Precipitation

Prior to implementation, the National Meteorologica1 Center's (NMC's) new Regional Analysis and Forecast System (RAFS) (National Weather Service, 1985a) was subjected to intensive testing at NMC (National Weather Service, 1985b). The Washington, D. C. National Weather Service Forecast Office (WBC) cooperated with NMC in evaluating from a field perspective output from the Nested Grid Model (NGM), which the forecast model in RAFS. In WBC's evaluation, it was found for instance that the NGM does well (compared to the LFM) in forecasting shallow, trapped cold air east of the Appalachian Mountains (Bocchieri, 1985).