An Update On The HRRR Model and Some Recent High-impact Examples

Abstract

The High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model has been run experimentally on the CONUS scale since 2009 at the Global Systems Division of ESRL/NOAA in Boulder. Many changes have occurred with the HRRR since 2009, and these are listed with a detailed description of the HRRR at http://ruc.noaa.gov/hrrr. The HRRR is a high resolution (3 km horizontal grid resolution) convection-allowing (no convective parameterization) model that is run on the CONUS scale once per hour out to 15 hours. It is initialized with the RAP model (which is run at a resolution of 13 km), but assimilates radar data on the HRRR 3-km scale. Although the HRRR is (as of June 2014) still an experimental model, it is scheduled to become part of the NCEP model suite, run at the NCEP supercomputer, by late summer or early fall (most likely before the time of the NWA Conference). At that point it will be available to all NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) on AWIPS (I or II) through the SBN. Many WFOs have already been viewing the HRRR, however, some for a number of years, through arrangements between ESRL/GSD and the various NWS Regional Centers, with a limited amount of model output coming through the LDM. In this poster we will show the latest configuration of the HRRR that will be available through NCEP. Additionally, a number of case studies will be shown, focusing on some recent high impact events such as the Yarnell, Arizona Fire in the summer of 2013, the Colorado Floods of September 2013, and other more recent convective and non-convective events.