Blue Pearl Weather Prediction Center

The Blue Pearl Weather Prediction Center was founded, well, just this year. This month. But, we say we're "50 years old!"

SAPPHIRE and TERRA models
The Sapphire forecast model has a minimum resolution of about a kilometer. The Terra model has a minimum resolution of a centimeter. But, the Sapphire model has a maximum area of 1 earth, while the Terra model has a limit of about a square kilometer. Multiple Terra model boxes are used to get the usual model run area of about 5 square kilometers. In fact, the normal 1-sq. km. area is made up of 4 areas of forecast melded together.

Storm Scale
Even though the colors are different,we still use the SSHS for intensity.



The future...
BPWPC hopes to expand its abilities. One plan is the Buoy Radar Mesonet, a series of buoys each 1km apart and with radar and other equipment. This is already being tested, and has been used in Hurricane Steffi. A scientific paper published in the Pearl Meteorology Journal says that, without BRM data, forecast accuracy fell by 50% from 90%