Within the World Bank project «Development of a standardized verification mechanism and QMS for the Moldova SHS», a user-friendly application was developed in order to assessing the quality of the meteorological forecasts issued by the Moldavian State Hydrometeorological Service.
The automated system comprises two visual interfaces, which simplifies the user interaction with the meteorological database. The prognostic data (forecast) and diagnosis (observations) are collected via a web-based interface, and performance scores are computed for each parameter and can be visualised in tabular and graphical formats.
The meteorological variables evaluated by the verification system are: precipitation (appearance, shape, distribution and intensity), air temperature (minimum and maximum), cloud cover, wind speed, fog, glazed frost, hail, rime, frost, as well as of precipitation. Each element of the forecast receives a certain weight with respect to its importance; the weights were established following the WMO recommendations.
The forecast scores are calculated daily for 24, 48, or 72-hour forecast, country-wide and regionally.