European Storm Forecast Experiment
The European Storm Forecast Experiment, known as ESTOFEX, is an initiative of a team of European meteorologists, and students in meteorology founded in 2002. It serves as a platform for exchange of knowledge about forecasting severe convective storms in Europe and elsewhere. It is a voluntary organisation and is currently unfunded. It aims to raise awareness and provide real-time education about severe weather forecasting.[1] It issues storm warnings on a daily basis. It also collects reports from the general public about severe convective weather incidents in order to validate its forecasts.[2] ESTOFEX forecasts are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license.
Its definitions of severe convective weather phenomena are one or several of the following :[1]
severe:
- hail with a diameter of at least 2.0 cm
- tornado
- wind gusts with a speed of at least 25 m/s (92 km/h or about 48.6 knots)
- excessive rainfall of at least 60 mm .
extremely severe :
- hail with a diameter of at least 5.0 cm
- wind gusts with a speed of at least 33 m/s (about 119 km/h or 65 knots)
- a tornado of class F2 on the Fujita scale or stronger.
References
- 1 2 ESTOFEX FAQ
- ↑ Verification of ESTOFEX Lightning and Severe Weather Forecasts Alex Kowaleski,, Dr. Harold E. Brooks , Dr. Charles A. Doswell III. pdf
External links
- http://www.estofex.org/ Home page