Getting the most out of ECMWF sub-seasonal forecasts 22 September 2025 Tim Hewson introduces a new type of forecast map which enables users to visualise the information content of sub-seasonal forecasts like never before.
The AI Weather Quest: uniting international expertise to advance sub-seasonal forecasting 18 August 2025 As the competition phase of the AI Weather Quest starts, the organisers introduce the competition framework and establish a baseline by assessing the skill of current dynamical sub-seasonal forecast models.
Small-but-mighty Arctic Weather Satellite now assimilated at ECMWF 15 August 2025 ECMWF has started operational assimilation of data from a trail-blazing small satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) that provides new microwave sounding measurements from space. The new observations give a robust forecast improvement, complementing similar sensors from larger platforms.
2025 California wildfires: insights from ECMWF forecasts 05 February 2025 On 7 January 2025, a series of devastating wildfires started in Los Angeles. ECMWF, which has been producing fire danger forecasts since 2018, has been exploring new approaches to fire forecasting in recent years.
Forecasting extreme events in Ecuador 04 November 2024 The challenge of forecasting extreme events across Ecuador is the focus for Angela Iza Wong, from the Ecuador Hydrometeorological Service, during her year at ECMWF as a WMO Fellow.
Reflections on the 4th ESA-ECMWF Workshop on Machine Learning for Earth System Observation and Prediction 21 May 2024 As one of the organisers of the joint ESA-ECMWF Workshop, Massimo Bonavita discusses some of the highlights and considers the future role of machine learning for weather and climate prediction.
Machine learning ignites wildfire forecasting 06 March 2024 Joe McNorton reports on recent success in forecasting wildfires using machine learning at resolutions as high as 1 km and work to incorporate a wildfire component into ECMWF’s Integrated Forecasting System.
Heat stress and the European heatwave of 2023 03 October 2023 Claudia Di Napoli looks back at the extreme heat in parts of Europe this summer and describes her work to develop forecasts of heat stress and other weather-related health hazards.
European heatwave July 2023 19 July 2023 Europe is experiencing some of the hottest temperatures of summer 2023 so far, with parts of Greece, eastern Spain, Sardinia, Sicily and southern Italy seeing temperatures above 45°C at the start of this week.
The rise of machine learning in weather forecasting 20 June 2023 ML-based weather prediction models have developed rapidly over the last year with exciting results. A group of our scientists discuss developments and their potential implications for the future.
The strange phenomenon of large-scale cloud-clearing waves in the atmosphere 20 March 2023 While looking at kilometre-scale simulations, Philippe Lopez and Inna Polichtchouk spotted unusual cloud-free areas in the tropics which also appeared in observations. Here they describe their investigation of this large-scale cloud-clearing wave phenomenon.
One woman's journey to a career in Earth system modelling 08 March 2023 To mark International Women’s Day, Birgit Sützl, an early career research scientist at ECMWF, shares her experiences of studying maths at university and her journey to find her perfect career path in Earth system modelling.
Maldives Meteorological Service and ECMWF collaborate through the WMO Fellowship Scheme 17 February 2023 Ahmed Shabin from the Maldives Meteorological Service shares his plans for the year ahead at ECMWF as a WMO Fellow.
Verifying high-resolution forecasts 24 January 2023 Higher-resolution forecasts need different methods to assess their accuracy than lower-resolution forecasts. Thomas Haiden and Llorenç Lledó discuss some of their work in this field.
EFAS kilometre-scale flood forecasting: hydrology meets computer science 13 December 2022 Cinzia Mazzetti talks us through the upgrade of the European Flood Awareness System from 5 km to around 1.5 km, and how hydrologists, meteorologists and computer scientists are working together to achieve success.
ECMWF Summer of Weather Code 2022 07 November 2022 Now in its fifth year, ECMWF’s Summer of Weather Code continues to develop innovative software solutions which tackle a range of challenges in weather and climate, by bringing together external teams with ECMWF experts. Esperanza Cuartero and Julia Wagemann take us through this year’s projects.
Progress in sub-seasonal forecasting of weather extremes 04 October 2022 As their work under the EU-funded CAFE project draws to a close, ECMWF scientists Emmanuel Rouges and Nikolaos Mastrantonas highlight the progress they’ve achieved in forecasting extreme conditions over Europe at the challenging sub-seasonal timescale.
Predicting the impact of new satellites on ECMWF’s forecasts 16 June 2022 ECMWF’s Ensemble of Data Assimilations is providing a novel and efficient way to assess the impact of new satellite observations and to help inform the development of the Global Observing System. Sean Healy and Katrin Lonitz discuss some of the latest work.
Radio Frequency Interference: an NWP perspective on the RFI 2022 workshop 14 March 2022 Radio frequency interference poses serious risks to numerical weather prediction and other fields. Stephen English takes us through the key issues discussed at the RFI 2022 workshop on monitoring, mitigation, and management.
