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Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP)

SWFDP Regional Subproject in Central Asia

(SWFDP-Central Asia)

Beneficiary Countries:	5 countries in Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
Regional Centres:	RSMC Tashkent RSMC Moscow (for technical support)
Contributing Global Centres:	RosHydromet, ECMWF, CMA, JMA and KMA
Start of Project Development and Planning:	In 2014
Subproject website since July 2015:	http://swfdp-ca.meteoinfo.ru/
Main Focus (Severe weather types):	Heavy rain, strong winds, snow storms and blizzards, cold waves (low temperature) and heat waves (high temperatures)
Present Status:	In Phase-II Demonstration phase since January 2017

SWFDP Development in Central Asia

Noting the significant development and progress of the Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP), implemented in the south-eastern region of Africa (RA I) in 2006, and the importance of accurate and timely severe weather warnings for Members, the Fifteenth World Meteorological Congress (Cg-XV, 2007) decided that SWFDP concept should be expanded and implemented throughout RA I and to other WMO Regions especially in developing countries. In 2011 again the Congress requested the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) to continue to give high priority to the implementation and expansion of the SWFDP.

The SWFDP concept for Central Asia was envisioned during visit of a three-member delegation, comprising of meteorological experts from NMHSs of Central Asia, to WMO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in September 2014. The SWFDP regional subproject was conceived to be developed as part of Central Asia Hydrometeorological Modernization Project (CAHMP) funded by the World Bank and lead by Central Asia Regional Centre of Hydrology based in Kazakhstan. The benefitting countries of the project include: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Within the CAHMP, there have been developed Terms of Reference (ToR) for the “Adaptation and Implementation of Numerical Models into RSMC Tashkent (UzHydromet) in the interests of 4 NMHSs in Central Asia”.

SWFDP-Central Asia

As part of CAHMP, the SWFDP-Central Asia (CA) is being developed in stages including enhancing NWP capacity at RSMC Tashkent. Though RSMC Tashkent has agreed to serve as a lead Regional Centre for SWFDP-CA, the provision of NWP guidance and project website has been maintained by RosHydromet till RSMC Tashkent becomes fully functional to continue its work as a regional centre for the project.

Since initiation of the project, a number of activities, including capacity development of NMHSs, have been carried out towards implementation of SWFDP-CA as part of CAHMP. The project milstones are listed below:

2015:	- Regional workshop on technical planning for improving severe weather forecasting following the SWFDP approach for Central Asia and introduction of COSMO technology in RSMC Tashkent in the interests of four NHMSs in Central Asia (Almaty, Kazakhstan, April 2015) - One-week SWFDP-CA Workshop on analysis and interpretation of NWP products (Moscow, July 2015) - Launch of the password-protected project website (in Russian language) by RosHydromet in July 2015 - Start of pilot demonstration from August 2015 - Local forecasters training (Astana, 14-16 September 2015)
2016:	- SWFDP-CA Training Workshop on Severe Weather Forecasting and Warning Services, (Almaty, Kazakhstan, Feb./March 2016) - Local on-site trainings for the CA NMHSs (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 18-19 Feb. 2016; Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 4-7 May 2016; Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2-7 Jul 2016)
2017:	- Demonstration phase started in January 2017 - Training for forecasters and IT staff from Uzhydromet (Moscow, 6-16 February 2016) - SWFDP-CA Training Workshop for four CA NMHSs (Moscow, 11-15 December 2017)
2018:	- Meeting of five CA NMHSs (including Turkmenistan), World Bank and WMO to project reports and Word Bank project "Strengthening Early Warning of Mountain Hazards in CA" on 23 January 2018 - Meeting of COSMO-CA User Community: Five NMHSs, Roshydromet, and COSMO consortium (19-20 February 2018) -Turkmenistan joined SWFDP-Central Asia in May 2018 -Workshop of COSMO-CA User Community (Tashkent, 4-6 June 2019)

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