The GFS modeling system will undergo a significant upgrade starting on the 1200 UTC 7 January 2015 cycle. Some particularly important aspects of this upgrade as it may pertain to storm chasing and forecasting include
-Resolution improvement from ~27 km to ~13 km (similar to the NAM and RAP)
-Maintenance of the ~13 km resolution out to forecast hour 240 (with output available at 6 hrs from f192-f240) and improved resolution from ~84 km to ~35 km after f240
-Some fields will be output hourly between forecast hours 0 and 12
-Improvements to model physics, model dynamics, as well as initialization (additional obs being assimilated) and improved data assimilation system
What this means for the average joe:
GFS forecasts will be more accurate and products will be available more frequently at more distant lead times. It does not appear forecast latency will change.
See http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notification/tin14-46gfs_aaa.htm and links therein for more details.
-Resolution improvement from ~27 km to ~13 km (similar to the NAM and RAP)
-Maintenance of the ~13 km resolution out to forecast hour 240 (with output available at 6 hrs from f192-f240) and improved resolution from ~84 km to ~35 km after f240
-Some fields will be output hourly between forecast hours 0 and 12
-Improvements to model physics, model dynamics, as well as initialization (additional obs being assimilated) and improved data assimilation system
What this means for the average joe:
GFS forecasts will be more accurate and products will be available more frequently at more distant lead times. It does not appear forecast latency will change.
See http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notification/tin14-46gfs_aaa.htm and links therein for more details.