Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP)

SWFDP – South Asia

(formerly SWFDP - Bay of Bengal)

SWFDP Development in South Asia

The Fifteenth World Meteorological Congress (Cg-XV, 2007) noted the significant development and progress of the Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP), from concepts to the first SWFDP regional subproject, implemented in the south-eastern region of Africa in 2006. Further, while noting the importance of accurate and timely severe weather warnings for Members and that if the SWFDP in south-eastern Africa was successful, decided that its concept  should be expanded and implemented throughout RA I (Africa) and to other WMO Regions especially in developing countries. Further, the WMO Executive Council and the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Global Data-Processing and Forecasting Systems (GDPFS) and Public Weather Services (PWS) programmes in relation to enhancing the use of existing Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) products for improving severe weather forecasting and warning services, as well as supporting emergency response of hazardous weather conditions and weather-related hazards. 

Subsequently, in RA II (Asia), the development process for implementing SWFDP regional subprojects in Southeast Asia and the Bay of Bengal (South Asia) was started in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

A technical planning workshop on SWFDP development for Bay of Bengal (South Asia) was held in New Delhi, India in January 2012. Later, a draft regional subproject implementation plan (RSIP) was developed by the designated representative of India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the same was reviewed by other contributing global centres. The IMD has exceptional role in this subproject for being a contributing global NWP centre, and as a lead regional centre for both severe weather forecast and tropical cyclone forecast support in the subregion. As a global centre, IMD is supported by National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).

Regional training workshops on severe weather forecasting and warning services were organized in April 2013 (in Macao, China) and in September 2015 (in Bangkok, Thailand) to develop capacity of the NMHSs in making best use of the available NWP products and satellite information in severe weather forecasting and warning services, and to improve coordination of the NMHSs with targeted users including general public, media, and disaster managers for better delivery of warning services and improved DRR activities. These training events were jointly organized for the countries in Southeast Asia and Bay of Bengal (South Asia) subregions.  The above activities for SWFDP-Bay of Bengal (South Asia) were mainly carried out by funding received from UN ESCAP through RIMES, Bangkok as part of a WMO-RIMES joint project. The password-protected project website, developed by RSMC New Delhi, was made accessible to the participating NMHSs in September 2015 in order to access to, and make use of the high value NWP products and satellite based information in severe weather forecasting and warning services at national and local levels.

In 2016, the subproject was expanded to benefit 3 more countries in the subregion (namely Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan) and the total number of benefitting countries became 9.

The subproject is managed by a Regional Subproject Management Team (RSMT) which mainly consists of the designated representatives from participating NMHSs and contributing global and regional centres. The first meeting of the RSMT and a preparatory Regional Training Workshop were organized back-to-back in Colombo, Sri Lanka during 28 November - 8 December 2018. The RSMT reviewed the subproject progress and updated the regional subproject implementation plan (RSIP), and agreed on timeline of the demonstration phase of the subproject with pilot demonstration phase from 1 June 2019. RSMT also decided to rename the subproject as SWFDP Regional Subproject for South Asia (SWFDP-South Asia) considering expansion of the subproject invloving 9 countries in South Asia.

The regional training workshop aimed to develop capacity of the NMHSs on NWP products access, interpretation and use in severe weather forecasting and strengthening impact based forecasts and warning services through engagement with users especially disaster management and civil protection authorities.