The Meteorology Institute already provides weather radar warnings in Nowcasting for hail, heavy precipitation (stratified and convective), wind shear, severe weather and downburst phenomena.
In the field of diagnosis and forecasting of the very short-term weather (Nowcasting), IM says that part of its strategy “is based on the generation of a set of warning products, exclusively based on radar observation, and their availability in time real to forecasting meteorologists'.
These products, available in an operational forecast environment, constitute, according to IM, "an important tool to support technical decisions, with a direct impact on safeguarding lives and goods."
The hail warning identifies areas where hail damage is occurring or where it may occur within 10 minutes of the warning being issued.
The heavy precipitation warning identifies areas where heavy precipitation is occurring above a certain threshold, also distinguishing between stratified regimes (continuous precipitation) and convective regimes (intermittent precipitation).
Due to the persistence of warnings in a given region, it indicates areas where flash flood episodes may be occurring or will occur in the short term.
In turn, the wind shear warning identifies areas where intense circulations of a small spatial scale are occurring or may occur in a short period, that is, strong wind phenomena at an essentially local scale.
The severe weather warning (with two levels of intensity) identifies convective cells likely to be producing, or to produce in the short term, severe weather phenomena.
The downburst warning, as the name suggests, identifies areas where this strong wind phenomenon is occurring or could occur in the short term.
Soon, more warning products will enter into operational exploration, «in order to make this forecasting support tool more robust».
The IM reveals that among these products, the severe convection warning and the differentiated hail/hail diagnosis stand out.
In the near future, a product that aims to detect, earlier and more accurately, convective cells associated with strong wind phenomena on a local scale should also enter into operational operation.
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