Radar-based rainfall nowcasting at European scale: long-term evaluation and performance assessment

Abstract

This work studies the performance of CRAHI's algorithm for rainfall nowcasting at European scale using the mosaics produced within the EUMETNET project OPERA (with a resolution of 4 km and 15 minutes) in the framework of the European Civil Protection research project HAREN (www.haren-project.eu). Systematic evaluation has been carried out since June 2012, focusing on the space-time variability of the nowcasting skills, and its dependence on the scale of the forecasted precipitation systems and on rainfall intensities. Also, the probabilistic nowcasting technique SBMcast (Berenguer et al. 2011) has been adapted to the use of OPERA mosaics at European scale to assess the uncertainty in the produced nowcasts. The performance of this probabilistic technique has been evaluated over a number of cases. Finally, the work analyzes the usefulness of these nowcasts for hazard assessment at European scale, based on exceeding the regional rainfall thresholds used by the EUMETNET project METEOALARM.