The European Storm Forecast Experiment, known as ESTOFEX, is an initiative of a team of European
meteorologists, and students in
meteorology founded in 2002. It serves as a platform for exchange of knowledge about forecasting severe
convective storms in Europe and elsewhere. It is a voluntary organisation and is currently unfunded. It aims to raise awareness and provide real-time education about
severe weather forecasting.
[ESTOFEX FAQ](_blank)
/ref> ESTOFEX issues storm warnings on a daily basis. It also collects reports from the general public about severe convective weather incidents in order to validate its forecasts.Verification of ESTOFEX Lightning and Severe Weather Forecasts
Alex Kowaleski,, Dr. Harold E. Brooks, Dr. Charles A. Doswell III. pdf Reports should be submitted to th
European Severe Weather Database(ESWD).
ESTOFEX forecasts are published under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license.
Its definitions of severe convective weather phenomena are one or several of the following :
severe:
*
hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fal ...
with a diameter of at least ,
*
tornado,
*
wind gusts with a speed of at least ,
* excessive
rainfall of at least .
extremely severe :
* hail with a diameter of at least ,
* wind gusts with a speed of at least ,
* a tornado of F2
intensity
Intensity may refer to:
In colloquial use
*Strength (disambiguation)
*Amplitude
* Level (disambiguation)
* Magnitude (disambiguation)
In physical sciences
Physics
*Intensity (physics), power per unit area (W/m2)
*Field strength of electric, ma ...
or higher on the
Fujita scale.
As an organization that is more focused on operational meteorology, i.e.
weather forecasting, ESTOFEX functions somewhat as a counterpart to the US
Storm Prediction Center (SPC). The research oriented correlate is the
European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) which itself is modeled somewhat after the US
National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), with both US counterparts enjoying stronger institutional support as long-time governmental entities.
References
External links
ESTOFEX homepage
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European research networks
Weather forecasting
Meteorological organizations