The Royal Meteorological Society has a number of local centres across the UK, where meetings are held throughout the year. The South East Local Centre are currently hosting monthly meetings which can be attended in person or virtually. For further information on the local centre, upcoming events or to be added to the mailing list, please contact southeast@rmets.org.
FIRST SPEAKER | Simon Lee, PhD student, Dept. of Meteorology, Univ. of Reading
Seasonal forecasts of winter 2019-20
ABSTRACT | The winter of 2019-2020 was exceptional across the Northern Hemisphere – dominated by extremely strong jet streams in both the troposphere and stratosphere. These unusually strong westerly winds led to an unusual absence of cold air outbreaks across the hemisphere and contributed to hydrological extremes in the UK and the beginnings of the 2020 Siberian heatwave.
In this talk, I will discuss just how unusual the winter was, and present an intercomparison of seasonal forecasts from 6 different forecast centres. I will show how most of these forecasts successfully predicted the large-scale winter circulation and demonstrate the interdependence between accurate forecasts of the stratosphere and troposphere during the winter. I will also remark on the very different story this winter.
SECOND SPEAKER | Alex Doyle, PhD student, Dept. of Meteorology, Univ. of Reading
Monsoon convection observed using Doppler weather radar
ABSTRACT | The Indian monsoon is responsible for most of the country’s annual rainfall and is one of the largest modes of seasonal variability in wind direction and precipitation seen worldwide. This fact, along with the vast, growing population across South Asia whose livelihoods depend upon monsoon rains, makes it one of the most active areas of research in the atmospheric sciences.
In this talk, I will show how convective cloud development is interconnected with the progression of the monsoon itself, and therefore an important aspect of the monsoon in weather forecast models. India, along with other tropical locations, has a growing network of operational Doppler weather radars positioned around the country. I will explain how these radars are well-suited for the monitoring of convection in tropical regions, and discuss variability in convection in light of changes in the wider monsoon circulation.
DISCLAIMER | Although this meeting was hosted by The Royal Meteorological Society, the work shared is that of the speakers and the views and comments of this meeting do not reflect the views and opinions of the Society.
