World Meteorological Organization

Beneficiary Countries:

9 countries in South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand

Regional SWF Centre:

• IMD/ RSMC New Delhi (since September 2015) (password protected)

Other relevant Centres:

• RSMC-TC New Delhi (for tropical cyclone forecast support)
• RSMC Beijing (SDS-WAS Asian Centre) (for sand and dust storm products)
• SCOPE - Nowcasting products (by CPTEC INPE Brazil)

Global Centres/WMCs:

• IMD (supported by NCMRWF and INCOIS) 
• WMC ECMWF; ENS Meteograms; and Forecaster User Guide 
• CMA (WMC Beijing); EPSgrams; Global EFI; RSMC Beijing (SDS-WAS Asian Centre); RCC (Beijing Climate Centre);
• JMA (WMC Tokyo) 
• KMA (Seoul)
• NCEP/NOAA (WMC Washington); Link for MJO
• UKMO (mainly through NCMRWF)
• DWD (WMC Offenbach) (to access to global ICON Model data); WMC Offenbach graphical products

Main focus:

Heavy rain, Strong winds, High waves, Storm surge

Present Status:

Phase-IV (sustain operations and continue further development)

Download:

Regional Subprogramme Implementation Plan (RSIP) (Draft version November 2020)

• Met Office UK through CARA/WISER Asia and Pacific programme (2023-2027)
• Met Office UK through Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) programme (2019-2022)
• UN ESCAP funds through WMO-RIMES joint projects (2012-2015 & 2018)

SWFP implementation in South Asia

The SWFP-South Asia was initiated as 'demonstration project'. The development process for implementing a severe weather forecasting demonstration project (SWFDP) in the Bay of Bengal sub-region (South Asia) was started with a technical planning workshop held in New Delhi, India in January 2012. Later, a regional subproject implementation plan (RSIP) was developed by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and it was also reviewed by other contributing global centres. In 2016, the subproject was expanded to include 3 more countries namely Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan in South Asia. The first meeting of the Regional Subproject Management Team (RSMT) and a Regional Training Workshop were organized back-to-back in Colombo, Sri Lanka during 28 November - 8 December 2018. The RSMT which mainly comprises the designated representatives from participating NMHSs and contributing global and regional centres, reviewed the subproject progress, updated the regional subproject implementation plan (RSIP), and agreed on timeline of the demonstration phase of the subproject with pilot demonstration phase from 1 June 2019. RSMT also decided to rename the subproject as SWFDP Regional Subproject for South Asia (SWFDP-South Asia) considering its expansion involving 9 countries in South Asia.

The Eighteenth World Meteorological Congress (Cg-18, June 2019) through its Resolution 15 (Cg-18) decided, among others, to remove the 'demonstration' designation of SWFDP to refer it as Severe Weather Forecasting programme (SWFP). Later, SWFDP-South Asia also become SWFP Regional Subprogramme for South Asia (SWFP-South Asia). 

The IMD has an exceptional role in SWFP-South Asia for being a contributing global NWP centre, and as a lead regional centre for both severe weather forecast and tropical cyclone forecast support in the sub-region. As a global centre, IMD is supported by the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS).

Year

SWFP-South Asia: Activities & Key Milestones since 2011

• SWFP – South Asia and Southeast Asia - Training Workshop on Severe Weather & Impact Based Forecasting and Warning Services (28 February -10 March 2022) (ORGANIZED REMOTELY ONLINE)

• SWFP – South Asia and Southeast Asia - Training Workshop on Severe Weather & Impact Based Forecasting and Warning Services (1-12 Feb 2021) (ORGANIZED REMOTELY ONLINE)

• Meeting of the Regional Sub-programme Management Team (RSMT) (ONLINE, 25 May 2020) to review the sub-programme progress (Meeting Report)

• Eighteenth World Meteorological 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-South Asia also became SWFP-South Asia
• SWFP-South Asia Regional Training Workshop on Severe Weather & Impact based Forecasting and Warning Services (Islamabad, 18 – 23 November 2019) (organized in collaboration with UK Met Office through ARRCC programme).
• Pilot demonstration phase started from 1 June 2019

• The regional subproject was renamed as SWFDP-South Asia by the RSMT
• First Meeting of the Regional Subproject Management Team (RSMT) (Colombo, 28 November – 1 December 2018) (Meeting Report).
• One-week SWFDP-South Asia Regional Training Workshop on Severe Weather & Impact based Forecasting and Warning Services (Colombo, 3 – 8 December 2018)

• The subproject was expanded to include Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan (total number of benefitting countries became nine)
• RSMC New Delhi started issuance of Daily Guidance product (in graphics) (from 2 May 2016)

• Launch of RSMC New Delhi web portal for SWFP 
• SWFP Regional Training Workshop on Severe Weather Forecasting and Warning  Services (Bangkok, 14 – 25 September 2015) jointly organized for both the Bay of Bengal (South Asia) and Southeast Asia sub-regions

• Review of the Regional Subproject Implementation Plan (RSIP) 

• SWFDP Training Workshop (Macao, 8-19 April 2013) jointly organized for both Southeast Asia and the Bay of Bengal (South Asia) sub-regions (Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia and Macao also participated)

2012

• Technical-Planning Workshop on SWFDP for the Bay of Bengal (South Asia) (New Delhi, 23 – 27 January 2012) (Meeting Report)
• Development of initial draft RSIP for SWFDP-Bay of Bengal (South Asia)

• WMO mission (two-member team) to IMD, New Delhi, India (7 – 8 November 2011) to assess the potential role of RSMC New Delhi for SWFDP-Bay of Bengal