The societal, social, and economic impacts of the World Weather Research Programme Sydney 2000 Forecast Demonstration Project (WWRP S2000FDP)

The Sydney 2000 (S2000) Forecast Demonstration Project (FDP) was initiated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) to enable the world meteorological community to cooperatively demonstrate advanced technologies and methods for accurate and specific short-term weather forecasting (nowcasting). FDP output was developed in support of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and trialed throughout and beyond the Olympic period. As is the case with all WWRP projects, the WWRP S2000 FDP included an assessment of the social, societal, and economic impacts of the project's forecasts. The Impacts Study considered how Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecasters employed the enhanced FDP information to produce more “useful” nowcasts, and how selected end users accessed, utilized, and acted upon these enhanced forecasts. End users included the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and a small selection of other BoM clients. With few storms or severe weather events during the 2.5-month trial period the opportunity to fully evaluate the impact of the FDP technologies was limited. Nevertheless, positive social, societal, and economic impacts were clearly indicated and additional potential benefits were identified by users. This paper details the WWRP S2000 FDP environment, discusses the processes and outcomes of the WWRP FDP Impacts Study, and outlines the benefits and implications of this type of research to both the producers and users of weather forecast products.