Evaluation of Eta-RSM ensemble probabilistic precipitation forecasts

The accuracy of short-range probabilistic forecasts of quantitative precipitation (PQPF) from the experimental Era-Regional Spectral Model ensemble is compared with the accuracy of forecasts from the Nested Grid Model's model output statistics (MOS) over a set of 13 case days from September 1995 through January 1996. Ensembles adjusted to compensate for deficiencies noted in prior forecasts were found to be more skillful than MOS for all precipitation categories except the basic probability of measurable precipitation. Gamma distributions fit to the corrected ensemble probability distributions provided an additional small improvement. Interestingly, despite the favorable comparison with MOS forecasts, this ensemble configuration showed no ability to "forecast the forecast skill" of precipitation-that is, the ensemble was not able to forecast the variable specificity of the ensemble probability distribution from day-to-day and location-to-location. Probability forecasts from gamma distributions developed as a function of the ensemble mean alone were as skillful at PQPF as forecasts from distributions whose specificity varied with the spread of the ensemble. Since forecasters desire information on forecast uncertainty from the ensemble, these results suggest that future ensemble configurations should be checked carefully for their presumed ability to forecast uncertainty.