Spring Forecasting Experiment 2025: Preliminary Findings and Results

The Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) is a space in the National Weather Center Building in Norman, Oklahoma that facilitates forecasting experiments testing new concepts, tools, and algorithms developed at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), Storm Prediction Center (SPC), and their partner institutions including the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CWIRO). Conducted annually during the peak severe weather season since 2000, the Spring Forecasting Experiment, or SFE, is the longest running HWT experiment. The SFEs are co-led by SPC and NSSL and aim to accelerate research to operations through testing new severe weather prediction tools and forecasting methods, studying how endusers apply severe weather guidance, and facilitating experiments for optimizing convection-allowing model (CAM) ensemble design to inform NOAA’s Unified Forecast System (UFS). Grant no. NA21OAR4320204