Report to Congress: Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program

The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program (HFIP) began in 2009 and has significantly improved forecast performance for the last 10 years, while meeting the five-year goal to reduce track and intensity errors by 20 percent. Much remains to be done although the improvements are notable. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (PL 115-123) provided $50 million for operational and research and development (R&D) high performance computing (HPC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which will be shared between NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and the National Weather Service (NWS). This funding will extend NOAA’s current computing capacity, including efforts related to HFIP, for the next three to four years. In addition, HFIP receives approximately $13.5 million in annual funding (Table 1), which directly supports the strategies listed in Table 2. The next generation of HFIP will continue its mission to reduce impacts of hurricanes through the implementation of these key strategies designed to improve forecasts and warnings, while achieving the NWS goal of building a Weather-Ready Nation. OAR and NWS will continue to address existing science and research-to-operations (R2O) challenges by improving regional and global models; transitioning promising innovations from research to operations; and partnering with academia, America’s Weather Industry1, and the emergency response community to achieve the objectives outlined for the next generation of HFIP, successfully addressing the requirements of Title I, Section 104 of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (P.L. 115-25). Continued annual appropriations at the currently requested level will continue improvements described in this plan. 2019 OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) Weather Act (Weather Research & Forecasting Innovation Act) Submitted https://doi.org/10.25923/agg3-ky80 Public Domain 1931