World Meteorological Organization, World Weather Research Programme, WWRP 2012 – 1, 2012, 39 pp.
Cloud errors can have wide-reaching impacts on the accuracy and quality of outcomes, most notably, but not exclusively, on temperature. This is especially true for weather forecasting, where cloud cover has a significant impact on human comfort and wellbeing. Whilst public perception may not be interested in absolute precision, i.e. whether there were 3 or 5 okta of cloud, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest strong links between the perceptions of overall forecast accuracy and whether the cloud was forecast correctly, mostly because temperature errors often go hand-in-hand. It is therefore not surprising that forecasting cloud cover is one of the key elements in any public forecast, although the priority is dependent on the local climatology of a region. Forecasting cloudiness accurately remains one of the major challenges in many parts of the world.Contents.
Introduction.
Data sources.
Designing a verification or evaluation study.
Verification methods.
Reporting guidelines.
Summary of recommendations.
References.
Annex A, B, C, D.
