Climate Information and Prediction Services (CLIPS) is a project of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) designed to assist in the provision of climate information and predictions for improved economic and social decision making, and thereby support sustainable development. CLIPS builds on the rapidly developing atmospheric and oceanographic research (e.g. atmospheric predictability beyond weather prediction, ocean predictability, regional circulation indices such as ENSO and NAO, ocean-atmosphere interactions, etc.) as well as the wealth of climate data, experience and expertise within the National Meteorological Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and related entities and provides a framework to deliver operational user-targeted climate services. The CLIPS project is an effective framework within which regional climate variability and change information and the associated adaptation issues can be integrated. Development of training curricula, training workshops and regional showcase projects are key components of CLIPS.

The Regional Climate Outlook Forums (RCOFs), promoted by WMO along with other international agencies, constitute an important vehicle in developing countries for providing advanced information on the future climate information for the next season and beyond, and for developing a consensus product from amongst the multiple individual predictions (based on ensembles of different dynamical climate model outputs, statistical relationships between surface ocean and continental anomalies, validated by some human expertise) . RCOFs stimulate the development of climate capacity in the NMHSs and facilitate end-user liaison to generate decisions and activities that mitigate the adverse impacts of climate variability and change and help communities to build appropriate adaptation strategies.

There is a great potential for the regional climate activities that currently take place under RCOFs and through CLIPS training to expand, through the actions of the WMO regional associations and the NMHSs, the use of currently available downscaling tools to more countries and to include information on climate change scenarios assembled by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), such as climate projections created for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). This would enable NMHSs to contribute to their national communications to the UNFCCC and to develop or enhance their dialogue with users of climate information on climate risks and vulnerability (especially their governments), and would also support improved regional coordination on climate matters, standardization of tools and increased evaluation (feedback) on model outputs.

While there is a range of climate modeling and downscaling tools is available today, there is as yet no global framework to train and apply these tools to meet the user needs. CLIPS/RCOFs provide this framework and bring value to the model applications and their data and facilitate their access to the users.

It is important that appropriate partnerships with the application sectors are put in place to understand the user needs. It is most appropriate to develop RCOFs for groups of nations having common climate information needs.

Effective networking of the representatives of climate information providers and user sectors from the participating countries is also essential for successful operation of RCOFs. It is important for producers of climate predictions at seasonal to inter-annual scales to demonstrate the potential benefit that users can draw for their application by using the forecasts. This can easily be done using hindcasts.

CLIPS Brochures and related guidance documents and meeting reports.

CLIPS has been promoted worldwide, and a number of CLIPS Focal Points exist in many countries. RCOFs are active in Africa, South America, Central America, Asia and Pacific Islands. For more information, please visit http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/wcp/wcasp/clips/outlooks/climate_forecasts.html.

World Climate Applications & CLIPS Division

World Climate Programme Department, World Meteorological Organization,7bis, Avenue de la Paix, Case Postale No. 2300, 1211, Geneva 2, Switzerland; Tel: +41.22.730.8377; Fax: +41.22.730.8042; e-mail: wcac@wmo.int.

CLIPS brochures and RCOF links available at WMO World Climate Applications and Services Programme and CLIPS web pages: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/wcp/wcasp/wcasp_home_en.html.

Coping with the Climate: A Way Forward, A multi-stakeholder review of RCOFs. 2000. http://iri.columbia.edu/outreach/publication/irireport/PretoriaSumRpt2.pdf.

Palmer, T.N., A. Alessandri, U. Andersen, P. Cantelaube, M. Davey, P. Délécluse, M. Déqué, E. Díez, F.J. Doblas-Reyes, H. Feddersen, R. Graham, S. Gualdi, J.-F. Guérémy, R. Hagedorn, M. Hoshen, N. Keenlyside, M. Latif, A. Lazar, E. Maisonnave, V. Marletto, A. P. Morse, B. Orfila, P. Rogel, J.-M. Terres and M. C. Thomson. 2004. Development of a European multi-model ensemble system for seasonal to inter-annual prediction (DEMETER). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 85: 853-872.
http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175/BAMS-85-6-853.

Patt, A.G. and J. Winkler. 2007. Applying Climate Information in Africa: An Assessment of Current Knowledge. Written in support of NOAA, Boston University and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/XO-07-006.pdf.