The Cooperative Institute for Precipitation Systems (CIPS) is a collaborative project headed by

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

to promote understanding of significant

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

events. It originally focused on the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

but expanded to include other areas, notably winter precipitation in the eastern U.S.

Background

CIPS was formed in 2000 by the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the

College of Arts and Sciences A College of Arts and Sciences or School of Arts and Sciences is most commonly an individual institution or a unit within a university that focuses on instruction of the liberal arts and pure sciences, although they frequently include programs and ...

at Saint Louis University (SLU). The noted synoptician and precipitation expert James T. Moore was a significant player in the formation of CIPS and an active principal investigator until his death. An original and significant collaborative partner is the

National Weather Service St. Louis, Missouri National Weather Service St. Louis is the National Weather Service office located in St. Charles, Missouri, just outside St. Louis, Missouri. There are 46 counties in its County Warning Area (CWA). Some of the cities in its CWA are Columbia, Fa ...

, especially meteorologists

Ron Przybylinski __NOTOC__ Ronald William Przybylinski (September 15, 1953 – March 12, 2015) was an American meteorologist who made important contributions to understanding of bow echoes, mesovortices, related quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) structures and ...

, Fred Glass, Jim Sieveking, and Gary Schmocker, but substantial and sustained collaboration also occurs with many other

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

Forecast Offices (NWSFOs) throughout the U.S. as well as the

Storm Prediction Center The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is a US government agency A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight a ...

(SPC) and the

Weather Prediction Center The Weather Prediction Center (WPC), located in College Park, Maryland, is one of nine service centers under the umbrella of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), a part of the National Weather Service (NWS), which in turn is p ...

(WPC). Nearby partners include meteorologists from the

15th Operational Weather Squadron The 15th Operational Weather Squadron (15 OWS), based out of Scott Air Force Base, IL, is the largest Operational Weather Squadron in the Continental United States that does not have an overseas mission. Vision "Warfighter focused, warrior Airm ...

as well as television meteorologists. CIPS information is published in various meteorological journals and presented at numerous

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions * A ...

NWA NWA or Nwa most commonly refers to: * N.W.A ("Niggaz Wit Attitudes"), a hip hop group from Compton, California, US * National Wrestling Alliance, a professional wrestling organization NWA or Nwa may refer to: Music * New Weird America, a subgenr ...

, and other conferences as well as at smaller seminars. Winter and warm-season precipitation workshops are held at SLU. Numerous graduate students have done research with CIPS, earning their M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the process.

Research

Research on snow-to-liquid ratios and

climatology Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of stud ...

thereof, much of it by Martin Baxter, significantly advanced understanding of processes and contributed to improved

weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia a ...

of snow events.

Winter storm A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessar ...

s are a major area of research focus for CIPS throughout its existence. Meteorological analogs utilizing

numerical weather prediction Numerical weather prediction (NWP) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions. Though first attempted in the 1920s, it was not until the advent of computer simulation in th ...

(NWP) (such as the GFS and

NAM Nam, Nam, or The Nam are shortened terms for: * Vietnam, which is also spelled ''Viet Nam'' * The Vietnam War Nam, The Nam or NAM may also refer to: Arts and media * Nam, a fictional character in anime series ''Dragon Ball'' * ''NAM'' (video ...

models) combined with

meteorological reanalysis An atmospheric reanalysis (also: meteorological reanalysis and climate reanalysis) is a meteorological and climate data assimilation project which aims to assimilate historical atmospheric observational data spanning an extended period, using a si ...

are also a substantial area of research and the guidance data is heavily used by operational meteorologists in the NWS and media.

References

External links

CIPS

CIPS Analog Guidance
(Twitter account)
Missouri Climate Center
{{authority control Research institutes in Missouri Meteorological research institutes Saint Louis University Precipitation