WEATHER AND FORECASTING CHALLENGES IN THE PACIFIC REGION OF THE NATIONAL-WEATHER-SERVICE

The large area of responsibility covered by the Pacific Region of the National Weather Service provides a unique set of challenges to operat ional forecasters. Extratropical, subtropical, and tropical meteorolog ical phenomena on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales must be considered on a daily basis. Compounding the problems of forecasting d iverse weather for such a large area of responsibility is the fact tha t the Pacific Ocean is a data-sparse region. Recent improvements in da ta collection platforms and the continued progress made by researchers have helped increase the understanding of weather throughout the regi on, ultimately resulting in improved forecast services. This article p rovides an overview of some of the weather phenomena encountered in th e Pacific Region and helps set the stage for the accompanying articles that focus on specific weather forecasting problems. Some discussion is provided on the impact of the National Weather Service's modernizat ion program on operational forecasting in the region.