Warren R. Snyder
Science & Operations Officer
WFO, Albany, New York

 Collaborative Science, Technology, and Applied
Research (CSTAR) program
 Established by the Office of Meteorology* to bring
NWS-supported collaborative activities with the academic community into a structured program.
 Now OCWWS*
 Program currently under Office of Science & Technology
 Create a cost-effective transition from basic and applied research to operations and services
 Grants provided via a competitive grant process to select universities nationally since 2001.
 About $375K every three years

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Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting (QPF), Hydrology ,Tropical/Marine, Modeling and Analysis , Forecast/Warning Processes,
Radar
Albany/SUNY: Cooperative Research with the NWS on Cool- and Warm-Season Precipitation Forecasting over the Northeastern U.S.
Desert Research Institute: Improving WSR-88D QPEs in the Inter-mountain West
Florida Institute of Technology: A Real-Time Coupled Wave/Atmospheric Regional Forecast and Analysis System: CWARFS
Florida State : Operational system for probabilistic QPF, Ensemble precipitation forecasts, cloud-to-ground lightning climatologies, hydrological modeling for flash flood events
Hawaii : Evaluation of Flash Flood Prediction Models for Small Watersheds in Tropical Islands
NC State : Improving Understanding and Prediction of Warm Season Precipitation Systems in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic Regions ,
Topographically-forced weather systems in Carolinas and Virginia
Oklahoma : A partnership to develop, conduct, and evaluate real-time high-resolution ensemble and deterministic forecasts for convectivescale hazardous weather , Improving Tornado Detection with WSR-88D Using Spectral Analysis
Rhode Island : Transitioning coupled hurricane-ocean model to operations
Saint Louis: Improved QPF in the Central Region, Improving Prediction of Significant Weather Events in CR
Texas A&M: Lightning in the Nowcasting and Warning Process: Cooperative Research Applied to NWS Needs and Priorities
Utah : Improved Monitoring, Analysis, and Prediction of High Impact Weather, Numerical Weather Prediction, Local Weather, Mesoscale
Observations in Intermountain West
Washington : Improvement of Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction , High-resolution numerical weather prediction, grid post-processing, ensemble methodologies, Improving Marine Weather Prediction with Satellite-Derived Products

 Three Tiers of Projects
 Major Foci
 Collaborative – Often trial for projects to upgrade
 Associate
– Supporting Projects
 Two planning meetings per year (May & November)
 Major component of NROW
 Involve many Northeast NWS Offices & CWSUs
 10-15 NOAA Units
 Leverage the CSTAR grant to other related local
NWS office research

 Northeast 500hPa Cut Off Low Climatology
 Precipitation Distributions w/r to Cold Season
Cutoff Cyclones
 Mesoscale Banded Precipitation
 Precipitation Distributions w/r to Warm Season
Cutoff Cyclones
 Large Scale Regime Transitions (NAO)
 Precipitation Distributions w/r to Land falling &
Transitioning Tropical System

 Mesoscale Aspects of Heavy Snow/Icing Events
(Moderate Banding)
 Mesoscale Structure of Precipitation Regions in
Northeast Winter Storms
 Cool Season Moderate Precipitation Events in the
Northeast US
 Predecessor Rain Events in Advance of Tropical
Cyclones
 Warm Season Lake/Sea Breeze Induced Severe
Weather
 Large Scale Flow Anomalies w/r to Cool Season
Precipitation Events
 High Wind/Winter Severe Convective Events

 Fog Forecasting - Improving the forecast of Fog at Elmira New York
 Workstation ETA / WRF Projects /Great Lakes Ensemble
 Transition of ensembles of mesoscale models to operational forecasting
 An Investigation by Multiple Doppler Radars of Sea Breeze Circulations in and Around the New York Bight.
 Northeast Convective Flash Flood Events
 Northern New England Inverted Coastal Trough - (NORLUND Trough)
 Landfalling Tropical Systems Additional Foci "Outlier Systems“
 Integration of Research Into Operations
 Upslope Localized Snow Events (Western Maine, Hudson Valley)
 Compare and Contrast Three Ice Storms over New York
 Develop WES Simulation of 17 February 2003 Snow Event
 Hydrometeorological Ingredients Which Enhance Widespread Harmful
Algae Blooms in the Gulf of Maine and Massachusetts Bay Watersheds
 Correlations between Observed Snowfall and NAM Model Parameters
 Developing Probabilistic Forecasts using Ensembles
 Five projects not listed that were not completed due to transfers, promotions and death of project leads.

 Major Foci Projects
 Ice Storms and Freezing Precipitation
 Mesoscale Substructure in Winter Storms
 Deep Convection, Severe Weather, and
Appalachian Lee Troughs
 Mesoscale Precipitation Substructures
Associated with Convective Systems and
Landfalling Tropical Systems that cause Flash
Floods

 Collaborating / Associate
 ALY Decision Support Services Project (DSS)
 Integrating Social Science Into Operation
 Applications of Mesoscale Modeling
 Improvement of Ceiling & Visibility Forecasts for TAFs
 Understand the Modulation of the Climate of the
Northeast United States by Hudson’s Bay (Canada).
 Understanding Inland Extent of Lake Effect Snow
Bands
 Expanding Operational Use of Known Methods for
Forecasting River Ice Formation, Snow Melt and Ice
Break up.
 Integration of Research Into Operations
 Hudson-Mohawk Convergence Events

 Conference presentations
 Journal and other professional publications
 Articulate Teletraining
 Interactive VISIT Session
 Use in AFDs
 Webpage http://cstar.cestm.albany.edu/
 Several CSTAR Grad Students hired by NWS