A Comparison of Skill between Two Versions of the NCEP Climate Forecast System (CFS) and CPC’s Operational Short-Lead Seasonal Outlooks

AbstractAnalyses of the relative prediction skills of NOAA’s Climate Forecast System versions 1 and 2 (CFSv1 and CFSv2, respectively), and the NOAA/Climate Prediction Center’s (CPC) operational seasonal outlook, are conducted over the 15-yr common period of 1995–2009. The analyses are applied to predictions of seasonal mean surface temperature and total precipitation over the conterminous United States for the shortest and most commonly used lead time of 0.5 months. The assessments include both categorical and probabilistic verification diagnostics—their seasonalities, spatial distributions, and probabilistic reliability. Attribution of skill to specific physical sources is attempted when possible. Motivations for the analyses are to document improvements in skill between two generations of NOAA’s dynamical seasonal prediction system and to inform the forecast producers, but more importantly the user community, of the skill of the CFS model now in use (CFSv2) to help guide the users’ decision-making proce...

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