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Weather Forecasting Contest

Euro Weather Forecasting Contest

The University of Bergen will this fall and the next spring compete against 4 other universities in Europe in making the best 2 day weather forecasts. Participants will predict maximum and minimum temperature as well as precipitation.

Synoptic map of surface pressure and fronts from UK Met Office from 8 August 2016.
Synoptic map of surface pressure and fronts from UK Met Office from 8 August 2016.

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By Kristine Flacké HaualandUpdated: 21.10.2016 (First published: 12.10.2016)

The contest is a unique opportunity to improve the understanding of the limitations of the weather models and how the weather behaves in our parts of the world. Students and employees are all welcome to join, but the trophies are restricted to students only. A kick-off was arranged Tuesday 18 October in Auditorium 105 at the East Wing of GFI where forecaster Martin Granerød from Norwegian Meteorological institute presented the 2 day prognoses of the day and made us aware of typical errors in the models as well as what forecasters need to consider when making forecasts.

About the contest

All participants have to create an account on the website of the contest. They also have to submit their forecast tips by 18 UTC each of the 10 Tuesdays listed in the table below. The forecasts are for the 2 subsequent days for 2 different cities. The cities that are forecasted differ from week to week.

 Round 1+2Round 3+4Round 5+6Round 7+8Round 9+10
Fall18 October25 October8 November15 November22 November
Spring  21 February28 February7 March14 March21 March

At 16:15 on these Tuesdays, participants will gather in G-lab for an informal weekly discussion/briefing of the current weather situation and prognoses. Information about this will be sent in e-mails - you should therefore remember to sign in if you want to join the contest!

Contact Kristine Flacké Haualand (kristine.haualand@uib.no) if you have questions or want to be added to the e-mail list.

Useful tools for the contest
- prognoses from different weather models

DIANA*
iveret.gfi.uib.no*
windyty.com
meteociel.fr
wetterzentrale.de
tropicaltidbits.com
atmos.albany.edu
weather.unisys.com
weather.uwyo.edu/upperair

*: contact kristine.haualand@uib.no for user rights

From 1949, Norwegian Meteorological Institute held weather chart discussions twice a week. They went through the long time forecast and evaluated how the forecasts matched the observations of the weather. (Photo: Leif Ørnelund. The picture belongs to Oslo
From 1949, Norwegian Meteorological Institute held weather chart discussions twice a week. They went through the long time forecast and evaluated how the forecasts matched the observations of the weather. (Photo: Leif Ørnelund. The picture belongs to Oslo Museum, Byhistorisksamling)