1. NCEP’s FUTURE LIES WITH COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS

2. A collaborative effort produced by forecasters from the Climate Prediction Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Drought Mitigation Center and the National Climatic Data Center. Input to this product which is issued each Thursday, is also received from many WFOs through focal points located in each NWS region.

3. Consists of 2, 4 and 6 hour forecasts of thunderstorm coverage showing indications of growth potential and probability of occurrence. An initial forecast, produced at the Aviation Weather Center, evolves into a final product through collaboration with participating meteorologists from airlines and Center Weather Service Units (CWSUs).

4. Forecasters from TPC, HPC, MPC and all of the affected WFOs meet via teleconference four times daily to discuss movement and intensity of active tropical systems including placement of watches and warnings.

5. Monsoon Blast-Up Beginning the 2001 monsoon season, the Storm Prediction Center will participate in a coordination call that occurs twice daily among four southwestern desert WFOs (Tucson, AZ, Las Vegas, NV, Phoenix, AZ and Flagstaff, AZ) to discuss the convective situation in that area. It is expected that this opportunity will lead to increased communication, coordination, research and knowledge of southwest monsoon convection forecasting.

6. Involves researchers from NWS, OAR, NESDIS, Naval Research Laboratory, NCAR, Air Force Weather Agency, NASA, and several universities.

7. Fire Weather Chat Room Initially to be held among forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center and the WFOs at Elko, NV, Medford, OR, Flagstaff, AZ and Billings, MT beginning in early Summer 2001. Primarily, discussions will center on SPC's Day1and Day 2 fire weather outlooks. www.ncep.noaa.gov

9. Model Output Backup Collaborative efforts have led to improvements in NCEP’s model backup since the fire in the Cray C90 computer in September 1999. Options have been expanded for backup. NCEP has collaborative agreements with the Air Force Weather Agency, Fleet Numerical Meteorological and Oceanographic Center, Forecast Systems Laboratory and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office to supply model forecasts to back up NCEP products. Backup products are always available at the Telecommunications Gateway for immediate dissemination. NCEP computers are now housed in a state-of-the-art facility operated by the Census Bureau.