Better weather forecasting now

McGill professor developing improved techniques for short-term forecasting precipitation. Accurate precipitation forecasts are crucial to predicting flooding and to ensuring fresh water supply for human consumption. Being able to estimate the inflow of water into reservoirs is also essential to the efficient generation and distribution of hydroelectric power. Thanks to research by Prof. M.K. (Peter) Yau of McGill University's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and the NSERC/Hydro-Québec Industrial Research Chair in Short-term Forecasting of Precipitation, better computer models are being developed to improve short-term (24- to 48-hour) precipitation forecasting techniques. Yau's precipitation predictions are based on developing state-of-the-art representations of cloud processes that incorporate high-resolution radar observations of weather patterns into the initial conditions for model forecasts. Yau's aim is to develop deterministic as well as probability-based systems for predicting precipitation on a regional basis, and to study how precipitation develops and is distributed in heavy precipitation systems. Or, in other words, why does it snow or rain much more heavily here rather than over there within the same storm system.