WRF
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It may not rival the hype of a blockbuster movie premiere or the media blitz of a presidential election, but the new WRF ("warf") model is certainly generating a lot of buzz in the weather community. An acronym for Weather Research and Forecasting Model, WRF promises to boost us to a new level as we peer into the atmosphere's future.

WRF is going to be bigger and better by becoming more refined. A forecast model is essentially a map that breaks down the continuous flow of the atmosphere into a grid with fixed points. The closer together the grid points, the more the model approximates real weather. Current models use a 30 kilometer grid, but WRF, fueled with enough computer power, will be capable of resolving the atmosphere down to 1 km.

Picture it this way: there's a squall line 10 kms across just over the horizon. In the current models it falls between the cracks, but WRF will nail the storm as it evolves, pinpointing where and when it is likely to hit. And, according to Joe Klemp, senior scientist at the National Corporation for Atmospheric Research, WRF will be equally adept at tracking large-scale events like hurricanes.

More accurate, more refined, more versatile: that's the good news. The not-so-good news is that WRF won't become fully operational for another 4 years, though a bare bones version is scheduled for release within a month. So stand by. If you notice a marked improvement in the forecast some time in the fall of 2004, you'll know why.