Name, Surname, Position Logo(s) Weather monitoring and forecasting over eastern Attica (Greece) in the frame of FLIRE project Vassiliki Kotroni (1), Konstantinos Lagouvardos (1), Nektarios Chrysoulakis (3), Christos Makropoulos (2), Maria Mimikou (2), Chrysoula Papathanasiou (2), and Dimitris Poursanidis (3) (1) NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS – INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, (2) NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS, (3) FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, INSTITUTE OF APPLIED AND COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS, GREECE FLIRE objectives: Develop a Decision Support System (DSS) for integrated weather information management, forest fire management and floods information management. The aim is to support decision making of Civil Protection Agencies and local stakeholders in the area of east Attica (Greece) A flowchart summarizing the DSS The study area is the catchment area of Rafina city Adopted strategy for setting-up the operational weather forecasting chain that provides the weather forecasts for the FLIRE project needs 8 km24 km 2 km MM5 MM5 model is run once daily, initialized at 0000 UTC. Grid 1 simulation lasts 72 hours, Grid 2 starts at t+6 with a total simulation time of 66 h and finally Grid 3 starts at t+6, with a total simulation time of 42 h. Therefore Grid 3 provides every day detailed weather forecasts for the same day and the following day, at 1-h interval. EFWS This presentation is devoted to the data that are provided in the Weather Monitoring Management Tool of the FLIRE system that includes: Short term weather forecasts for the study area Weather station Real time Data Smart alerts for thunderstorms MM5 model is run once daily, initialized at 0000 UTC. Grid 1 simulation lasts 72 hours, Grid 2 starts at t+6 with a total simulation time of 66 h and finally Grid 3 starts at t+6, with a total simulation time of 42 h. Therefore Grid 3 provides every day detailed weather forecasts for the same day and the following day, at 1-h interval. The forecast verification is conducted for the rainfall events that have occurred from March 2013 up to December 2014 in the Greater Athens Area. For the selection of the events the following criteria have been applied: (a) at least one station to have recorded more than 20 mm of rain in 24 hours, (b) more than 3 surface meteorological stations have recorded rainfall (in order to avoid very local events). For the statistical evaluation, the precipitation observations from 21 rain gauges operated by the National Observatory of Athens (red bullets), and 10 rain gauges operated by the National Technical University of Athens (green bullets) are used for the verification. Validation of precipitation forecasts The forecast verification is conducted for the rainfall events that have occurred from March 2013 up to December 2014 in the Greater Athens Area (37 events). For the selection of the events the following criteria have been applied: (a) at least one station to have recorded more than 20 mm of rain in 24 hours, (b) more than 3 surface meteorological stations have recorded rainfall (in order to avoid very local events). datemax 24hrain #stations with rain 131 December December December December December December November November October October September September September July July April April April March March February January January January January January December December November November November November November October June June May For the statistical evaluation, the precipitation observations from 44 rain gauges are used. The 24-h accumulated precipitation values (from t+24 up to t+48), so the model forecast for DAY2, are verified against the available rain gauges. Rain Thresholds in mm Areal Bias POD FAR CSI Rain Ranges in mm >20. QB MAE This research has been carried out under the Project FLIRE "FLoods and fIre Risk assessment and managEment". The project aims to develop a warning system for floods and fire risk management and is co-financed by European Commission General Directorate for the Environment, LIFE financial instrument with 50%. Surface stations network that provides real-time weather monitoring of the study area Smart alerts for thunderstorms in the study area  Every 15-min an automated procedure is executed at NOA, scanning ZEUS network data for lightning occurrence within a radius of 10 km and 20 km around the area of interest (east Attica).  The procedure provides a short file with a 0 indication for no lightning and 1 for lightning within 10 km radius and 2 for lightning within 20 km of radius.  This file is transferred to DSS every 15 min, for display. Image of the meteorological stations and the model domain from the Decision Support System graphical interface. Image of the meteorological forecasts of precipitation over the study domain from the Decision Support System graphical interface.