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Climate Acronyms and Glossary
Compiled by the NOAA-CU Western Water Assessment
Anomaly The deviation of a measurable unit, (e.g., temperature or precipitation) in a given region over a specified period from the long-term average, often the thirty-year mean, for the same region.
CCC Colorado Climate Center, State Climatologist, Colorado State University
CDs Climate Divisions, 344 divisions used to analyze climate data. Vary in size east to west and among states, so for some purposes, 102 mega-divisions of similar size are used.
CDC NOAA Climate Diagnostics Center, now a division in ESRL/PSD (see below)
CL Abbreviation used on climate outlook maps to indicate areas where equal chances of experiencing below-normal, normal, or above-normal conditions are possible.
Climate Outlook The NOAA Climate Outlook gives probabilities that conditions, averaged over specified period (typically one or three months), will be below-normal (shown as B), normal (N), above-normal (A), or CL for equal chances of these conditions.
Convection In meteorology, the rising and descending air motion caused by heat transfer. "Convection" and "thunderstorms" are often used interchangeably, although thunderstorms are only one form of convection.
Coupled Model A numerical model which simulates both the atmosphere and the ocean and the effects of each component on the other.
CPC NOAA Climate Prediction Center, issues operational climate products.
CBRFC NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, issues river, flood, and water supply forecasts for the Colorado River Basin.
CIRES NOAA-CU Cooperative Institute for Environmental Sciences.
CSTPR CU/CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy Research.
Deterministic In reference to a forecast, indicates single value forecast (e.g. a high of 50 F), vs. a range, and does not provide an estimate of uncertainty (see probabilistic).
ENSO El Nino-Southern Oscillation phenomenon, see Nino 3.4.
ESRL/PSD NOAA Earth Systems Research Lab, Physical Sciences Division, with the mission to provide the observation, analysis, and diagnosis of weather and climate physical processes necessary to increase understanding of Earth's physical environment, including the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and land, and to enable improved weather and climate predictions on global-to-local scales.
GCMs General Circulation Models, computer simulations of Earth's weather and climate.
GHGs Greenhouse gases.
HPC NOAA Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, provides outlooks for heavy rain and snow, as well as guidance weather forecasts through five days.
HSS Heidke Skill Score, a measure of how forecasts compare against forecasting climatological odds (1/3 for each tercile).
IC Initial conditions, as in observations to initialize models for a weather or climate forecast.
IRI International Research Institute for Climate Prediction.
JFM, etc Climate scientists often use the first letter of each month to abbreviate seasons, e.g., JFM= January-February-March; AMJ= April-May-June, SON= Sept-Oct-Nov, etc.
MBRFC NOAA Missouri Basin River Forecast Center, issues river, flood, and water supply forecasts for the Missouri River Basin, including the South Platte River.
NCEP NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (CPC and HPC are examples).
NCDC NOAA National Climatic Data Center (Paleoclimatology Program).
Nino 3.4 One of the regions in the equatorial Pacific used by NOAA to monitor and define the ENSO status. Nino 3.4 is the region from 120E W to 170E W latitude.
NOAA U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NRLC CU Natural Resources Law Center.
NWS NOAA National Weather Service.
NWP Numerical weather prediction, a prediction based on equations and based on initial conditions, or weather observations at a certain time.
OCN Optimal Climate Normals, a forecast based on persisting the average of the last 10 years for temperature and the last 15 years for precipitation for the season in question.
OLR Outgoing Longwave Radiation, a satellite-derived cloud measurement that is used to estimate tropical precipitation amounts.
PDO Pacific Decadal Oscillation - A recently described pattern of climate variation similar to ENSO, but with typically slower variations in time (e.g., multi-year, not seasons).
Probabilistic In reference to a forecast, refers to a forecast that includes an estimate of uncertainty with a most likely range, e.g. a forecast high of 48-52 F.
QPF Quantitative precipitation forecasts. A forecast of precipitation over a time period, usually 6- or 24- hours. PQPFs are probabilistic (vs. deterministic) QPFs.
RISA NOAA Regional Integrated Science and Assessments Program; WWA is one.
RPSS Ranked probability skill score, measures the mean-square error of a multi-category probabilistic forecast relative to the skill of a control probabilistic forecast, e.g., the climatological probability distribution. The RPSS is 1.0 for a perfect forecast and 0.0 for the reference, no-skill climatological forecast.
SLP Sea level pressure.
SLR Stepwise linear regression, a statistical analysis procedure.
SOI Southern Oscillation Index, index comparing the atmospheric pressure between Tahiti and Darwin, Australia, highly correlated with Nino 3.4.
SST Sea surface temperature.
Synoptic Scale Spatial classification for large-scale weather systems more than 200 miles across.
Teleconnection A strong statistical relationship between weather in different parts of the globe. For example, there appears to be a teleconnection between the tropical Pacific and North America during El Nino.
WRCC Western Regional Climate Center
WWA NOAA/CIRES Western Water Assessment