The North American Mesoscale Forecast System (NAM) is one of the National Centers For Environmental Prediction’s (NCEP) major models for producing weather forecasts. NAM generates multiple grids (or domains) of weather forecasts over the North American continent at various horizontal resolutions. Each grid contains data for dozens of weather parameters, including temperature, precipitation, lightning, and turbulent kinetic energy. NAM uses additional numerical weather models to generate high-resolution forecasts over fixed regions, and occasionally to follow significant weather events like hurricanes.
NAM Analyses
| Model / Period of Record | Grid / Scale | Model Cycle | Output Timestep | Data Access Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAM-ANL / 03Mar2004–Present | 4/day: 00, 06, 12, 18UTC | +00, (+03, +06 precipitation fields) |
NAM Forecasts
| Model / Period of Record | Grid / Scale | Model Cycle | Output Timestep | Data Access Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NAM-NMM / 20Jun2006–Present | 4/day: 00, 06, 12, 18UTC | 3-hourly, +00 to +84 hours | ||
| Meso-ETA / 15Feb2005–19Jun2006 | 4/day: 00, 06, 12, 18UTC | 3-hourly, +00 to +84 hours | AIRS | |
| Meso-ETA / 01Mar2004–23Mar2005 | 4/day: 00, 06, 12, 18UTC | 3-hourly, +00 to +84 hours | AIRS | |
| Meso-ETA / 02Jun2003–25May2005 | 4/day: 00, 06, 12, 18UTC | 3-hourly, +00 to +60 hours | HTTPS | |
| Meso-ETA / 02Jun2003–25May2005 | 4/day: 00, 06, 12, 18UTC | 3-hourly, +00 to +60 hours | HTTPS | |
| Meso-ETA / 02Jun2003–25May2005 | 2/day: 00, 12UTC | 6-hourly, +00 to +60 hours | HTTPS | |
| Early-ETA / 02Jun2003–25May2005 | 2/day: 00, 12UTC | 3-hourly, +00 to +60 hours | HTTPS |
Product History
As of June 20, 2006, the NAM model has been running with a non-hydrostatic version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at its core. This version of NAM is also known as the NAM Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model (NAM-NMM). Between February 15, 2005, and June 20, 2006, NAM was run with the Meso-ETA model. The analyses from all NAM and ETA runs are unified under the NAM-ANL product type.
NCEP changed this model’s name from Meso-ETA to NAM in January 2005. NCEI/NOMADS servers incorporated this change on February 15, 2005.
Resources
Visit the NCEP-NAM home page for more information about how the model is configured and run, and to access forecast products.
Data Usage Notes
July 2003: MSLET Missing for ETA 218 Forecast Hour 09
Messages from 09-hour forecast data for parameter MSLET in the ETA 218 grid are corrupt for all the cycles. We are unable to plot this data using GrADS or extract the data using GDS.
Also, the 09-hour forecast data for parameter MSLET in the ETA 218 grid is not being transmitted as a separate message. It is appended to the message for the forecast hour 03 data. It should arrive as bulletin ZPBE89*, but it arrives within bulletin ZPBB89*.
nomads3.ncdc.noaa.gov 54: wgrib -s ZPBB89_KWBE_20030710_0000 1:21:d=03071000:MSLET:MSL:3hr fcst:NAve=0 2:427172:d=03071000:MSLET:MSL:9hr fcst:NAve=0
