Local News

Europeans Announce Major Upgrade To Weather Forecast Model

March 10, 2016 / 11:47 AM MST / CBS Colorado

DENVER (CBS4) - The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts announced a major upgrade to their computer model on Thursday.

These changes are expected to provide more accurate global weather predictions at a record-breaking resolution.

Some changes to the model include...

triple the number of points where weather predictions are made to more than 900 million, reducing the distance between forecast points from 16 km to 9 km

ensemble forecasts are now at 18 km through day 15 in the model and 36 km thereafter

grid points in the model are distributed more uniformly

We use of variety of computer forecast models in Colorado's Weather Center to make the forecasts you see on CBS4 and CBSDenver.com, including the European, the North American Model and the Rapid Precision Mesoscale model.

Meteorologist Chris Spears writes about stories related to weather and climate in Colorado. Check out his bio, connect with him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @ChrisCBS4.