Long Range Forecast

[Jeff Russell]

What do you use to look at weather that is more than 120 hours out? I've found the GFS model, but what else is out there to look more than 120 hours?

Jeff

[Chris Nuttall]

As far as model data goes, the College of DuPage has data from the ECMWF (commonly called "the Euro") out to Day 7 (168 hours). Beyond 84 hours, the first thing I look at are the GPS ensemble ("spaghetti") plots. This gives me an idea of model confidence with the GFS before I even start looking at the particulars.

[Dan Robinson]

I've used this link for the ECMWF (switch to North America):

http://www.ecmwf.int/products/forecasts/d/charts/medium/deterministic/msl_uv850_z500

The NCEP page has the operational GFS out to Day 16:

http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/

NCEP ensemble spaghetti plots:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/threats/briefs/hgtP1.html