In an "Area Discussion" what do the abbreviations NAM, GFS, and CWA mean from NOAA? Are they types of radars?

Question

12Z NAM APPEARS TO BE HANDLING THE CONVECTION A LITTLE BETTER THAN
THE GFS...AND WILL LOWER POPS TO 40 PERCENT ACROSS THE NORTH HALF OF
THE CWA EARLY THIS EVENING...AS WE ARE GOT IN BETWEEN TWO SURFACE
TROUGHS.

Here's the sentence I am having some problems deciphering...Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

12 Zulu time NAM (a weather model that guesses future weather) is predicting the uplift of air (convection) a little better than the GFS (another weather model that guesses future weather)...and based upon the NAM model, will lower the possibility of precipitation (pops) to 40 percent chance across the northern half of the county (CWA) for early this evening...as we are in between two areas of lower pressure (trough). I'll take a cold beer as payment. Thanks.

Answer 2

The NAM and GFS are both computer models used by meteorologist to predict short to medium time frame weather patterns. These two are the more commonly used models, but you might also see them talk about RUC, UKMET, NGM, AVN, or ETA (which is the old abbreviation for NAM).

CWA stands for "county wide area"

NOAA stands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Answer 3

One thing you neglected to mention:

NAM: North American Model (formerly ETA model)
GFS: Global Forecasts System model

The people developing and running the models may be a bit upset of this thought of as guessing - though I suppose any sort of forecast can be considered a guess. They do guess in the sense that they attempt to eliminate data they deem is bad and can adjust and choose the initial state of the model to some extent (which is a combination of the previous run at that time and current data). I.e., if a run doesn't look right, they can adjust a few things and run it again. I.e. - you may think this is simply a machine running an automated process, but there is even a dope or a few of them deciding what that's gonna ultimately look like :)

So you can have the beer, but can I have the chips?

Answer 4

NOAA is the NAtional OCeanic Atmospheric Assoc or something like that. just a group of peeps. dunno 'bout the rest