The weather channel mentioned in passing that the European hurricane forecasting model has proven more accurate than all the other modeling programs used. Did anyone else hear this statement, too? I was hoping a SDoper weather nut could validate what I heard last night.
Aside: Yet, it is predciting Irene to take the most westerly path - contradicting all the other models. Strange!
I did not hear that report but I found this:
Yes, that would be the model they are referring to, the ECMWF. Unfortunately, unlike most US forecast models, most of the ECMWF data items are not freely available to the general public (that I’ve seen, I could be wrong). You can get the basics, but not as many freely available details as the various US operational models (such as the GFS and NAM).
There are plenty of other models used for hurricane prediction, all with their own pluses/minuses/biases, not to mention various ensemble (collections of models) forecasts.