This scenario isn’t hard to imagine: It’s the middle of summer. The entire year has been unusually dry, drought conditions took over months ago, and they’ve only gotten worse. Your phone dings, and you see a notification telling you something that’s been in the back of your mind for a while. Officials are now asking…
Wildfires have grown increasingly destructive in recent decades, with impacts felt nationwide. Forecasters rely on fire weather metrics — such as wind speed and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), which indicates atmospheric dryness — to assess when and where conditions may intensify wildfire behavior and strain suppression capacity. WPO selected the “Subseasonal Predictability of Fire Weather…
To continue advancing improvements in weather forecasting, WPO has announced the recipients of its FY25 research funding competition. These awards support essential work across its Synoptic; Testbeds; Observations; Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBES); and Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Programs. Alongside these external grants, the Joint Technology Transfer Initiative (JTTI) selected internal NOAA projects to…
The S2S Program is co-hosting a workshop with NSF NCAR on August 4–6, 2026. This meeting is a follow-on to the 2025 summer workshop and will focus on the role of land–atmosphere interactions in predictability at subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) timescales (here defined as two weeks to three months). Visit this page for more information. Further details…
We are excited to announce the publication of the S2S Community Workshop: Toward Minimizing Early Model Biases and Errors in S2S Predictions, authored by Christine Bassett and Mark Olsen, Ph.D. The summary captures key insights from the workshop held in July 2024 in Boulder, Colorado, which brought together scientists, model developers, operational forecasters, and end…
Registration for the Advancing Understanding of Land-Atmosphere Interactions and Processes on S2S Predictability workshop is open through 5 p.m. MDT on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. The hybrid workshop will be held at NSF NCAR in Boulder, Colorado and remotely from June 16–18, 2025, and is cohosted with WPO’s Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Program. From NSF NCAR: This workshop…
The Ocean Prediction Center (OPC) rolled out its experimental Week 2 Marine Hazards Outlook in mid-March, providing guidance about the chance of certain wave heights and wind speeds at longer lead times. Because of the demand for information about wind and wave hazards beyond the upcoming week, OPC meteorologists researched how skillful such forecasts would…
The Weather Program Office is pleased to announce the fire weather and Climate Testbed projects awarded in the FY24 Notice of Funding Opportunity competition. These six projects, involving eight institutions, are set to receive a total of $3.74 million over the next two years. Fire weather projects will improve wildfire and smoke prediction by enhancing…
NOAA’s Weather Program Office (WPO) is looking for proposal reviewers to help shape the future of weather research. By volunteering, you can play a key role in evaluating innovative projects that aim to advance critical research and improve weather forecasts, ultimately delivering effective and life-saving information to the public. WPO is seeking reviewers for the…
The 12th Symposium on Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise will be held at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) 104th Annual Meeting. The Subseasonal to Seasonal team at WPO will lead the Joint Sessions.