One of the mesoscale models used by MeteoGroup is the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF®¹). At MeteoGroup the Advanced Research version of WRF (ARW) is used. WRF is developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), the Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL), the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), the Naval Research Laboratory, Oklahoma University and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The WRF model is currently still in development and every year there is a major release.

The real contribution of WRF compared to the global models is in topographically challenging areas and extreme weather situations such as high wind speeds or extreme convection.

WRF is an open source model and so MeteoGroup's MRD team works with it extensively, enhancing the model and adapting it for any location on the globe, at any vertical and horizontal resolution (500m to 100km).

The high flexibility of WRF gives it multiple uses. The main one is an operational run twice a day for an area of Western-Europe with a forecast period of 42 hours. 

WRF is not only a tool for the forecast meteorologist. It can also be used for hindcast studies, air quality studies, regional climate modelling and short term nowcasting.

Development work to improve the quality of WRF is on-going at MeteoGroup (Dijke et.al., 2009).  

 ¹ WRF® is a registered trademark of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)