World Meteorological Organization

Beneficiary Countries:

5 countries in Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan  and Uzbekistan

Regional SWF Centre:

• RosHydromet/SWFP-Central Asia web portal (since July 2015) (password protected)

Other relevant Centres:

• RSMC Tashkent
• RSMC Beijing (SDS-WAS Asian Centre) (for sand and dust storm products)
• SCOPE - Nowcasting products (by CPTEC INPE Brazil)

Global Centres/WMCs:

• RosHydromet (WMC Moscow)
• CMA (WMC Beijing); EPSgrams; Global EFI; 
• JMA (WMC Tokyo); EPSgrams; 
• KMA (Seoul)
• WMC ECMWF; ENS Meteograms; and Forecaster User Guide
• DWD (WMC Offenbach) (to access to global NWP/ICON model data); WMC Offenbach graphical products
• NOAA/NCEP (WMC Washington) 

Main Focus:

Heavy rain, strong winds, snow storms and blizzards, cold waves (low temperature) and heat waves (high temperatures)

Inception year:

2015

Present Status:

Phase-III

• World Bank through its project Central Asia Hydrometeorology Modernization Project (CAHMP) (2011-2021)

SWFP implementation in Central Asia

The concept for developing SWFP as a 'demonstration project' for Central Asia was envisioned during visit of a three-member delegation, comprising meteorological experts from NMHSs of Central Asia, to WMO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in September 2014. The SWFDP-Central Asia was conceived to be developed as part of Central Asia Hydrometeorological Modernization Project (CAHMP) funded by the World Bank and lead by Central Asia Regional Centre of Hydrology based in Kazakhstan. Initially, the benefiting countries of the project included: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

As part of CAHMP, the development of SWFP-Central Asia was considered in stages including for enhancing NWP capacity at RSMC Tashkent. Within the CAHMP, there were developed Terms of Reference (ToR) for the “Adaptation and Implementation of Numerical Models into RSMC Tashkent (UzHydromet) in the interests of 4 NMHSs in Central Asia”.

Since inception of SWFP-Central Asia, a number of activities including for capacity development of NMHSs have been carried out as part of CAHMP. Turkmenistan also joined SWFP-Central Asia in May 2018. 

Though RSMC Tashkent agreed to serve as a lead Regional Centre for SWFP-Central Asia, the provision of NWP guidance and project website has been maintained by RosHydromet till RSMC Tashkent becomes fully functional to continue its work as a regional centre for SWFP-Central Asia. 

• Workshop on COSMO-Central Asia NWP development and use of its results (Tashkent, 25-30 August 2022) (for forecasters and IT specialists)
• SWFP-Central Asia Meeting of NMHSs and Roshydromet focal points (ONLINE, 25 August 2022)
• Inception training on the development of COSMO-Central Asia technology in cooperation with the SWFP-Central Asia (ONLINE, 15-16 June 2022)

• Eighteenth WM Congress (Cg-18, June 2019) through its Resolution 15 (Cg-18) decided among others to remove the 'demonstration' designation of the SWFDP and renamed it as Severe Weather Forecasting programme (SWFP). Subsequently, the SWFDP-Central Asia also became SWFP-Central Asia
• Workshop on modernization of RSMC Tashkent (Tashkent, 2-3 April 2019)

• Turkmenistan joined SWFDP-Central Asia in May 2018
• Workshop of the CA  COSMO user community (Moscow, 17-19 December 2018)
• Seminar for IT specialists of the CA COSMO user community (Tashkent, 5-8 June 2018)
• Workshop of COSMO user community (Tashkent, 4-6 June 2018) 
• Meeting of the CA COSMO user community: Five NMHSs, Roshydromet, and COSMO consortium (19-20 February 2018)
• Meeting of five CA NMHSs (including Turkmenistan), World Bank and WMO to project reports and Word Bank project "Strengthening Early Warning of Mountain Hazards in CA" on 23 January 2018

• SWFDP-Central Asia Training Workshop for four CA NMHSs (Moscow, 11-15 December 2017)
• Training for forecasters and IT staff from Uzhydromet (Moscow, 6-16 February 2017)
• Demonstration phase started in January 2017

• Local on-site trainings for the CA NMHSs: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (18-19 Feb. 2016); Dushanbe, Tajikistan (4-7 May 2016); Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2-7 July 2016)
• SWFDP-Central Asia Training Workshop on Severe Weather Forecasting and Warning Services, (Almaty, February/March 2016)

• Local forecasters training (Astana, 14-16 September 2015)
• Start of pilot demonstration from August 2015
• Launch of the password-protected project website (in Russian language) by RosHydromet in July 2015
• One-week SWFDP-Central Asia Workshop on analysis and interpretation of NWP products (Moscow, July 2015)
• Regional workshop on technical planning for improving  severe weather forecasting following the SWFDP approach for Central Asia and introduction of COSMO technology in RSMC Tashkent in the interests of four NHMSs in Central Asia (Almaty, Kazakhstan, April 2015)