Evaluation of Summer Temperature and Precipitation Forecasts Generated by the MM5 Model over Central European Russia

The results of the MM5 regional meteorological model are compared with the station data. The simulations are carried out for the central part of the East European Plain for summer with a horizontal grid resolution of 15 km (24 x 34 grid points) and 24 vertical sigma-levels, the upper level corresponding to 100 hPa. The MM5 model reliably reproduces information at a spatial scale of about 100 km, systematically overestimating temperature by about 1.5 degrees C and underestimating daily precipitation totals by about 1 mm. The distribution functions for model and observed temperatures coincide with the Gaussian distribution function. The precipitation distribution functions are rather similar and have a form of the chi(2)-distribution with one degree of freedom. Station and model temperature extremes generally coincide in time. Extremes of daily precipitation totals are slightly underestimated by MM5.