Seasonal Forecasting of Onset of Summer Rains over South Africa

In this study, we attempted to forecast the onset of summer rains over South Africa using seasonal precipitation forecasts generated by the Scale Interaction Experiment-Frontier Research Center for Global Change, version 2 (SINTEX-F2), seasonal forecasting system. The precipitation forecasts of the 12-member SINTEX-F2 system, initialized on 1 August and covering the period 1998-2015, were used for the study. The SINTEX-F2 forecast precipitation was also downscaled using dynamical and statistical techniques to improve the spatial and temporal representation of the forecasts. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model with two cumulus parameterization schemes was used to dynamically downscale the SINTEX-F2 forecasts. The WRF and SINTEX-F2 precipitation forecasts were corrected for biases using a linear scaling method with a 31-day moving window. The results indicate the onset dates derived from the raw and bias-corrected model precipitation forecasts to have realistic spatial distribution over South Africa. However, the forecast onset dates have root-mean-square errors of more than 30 days over most parts of South Africa except over the northeastern province of Limpopo and over the Highveld region of Mpumalanga province, where the root-mean-square errors are about 10-15 days. The WRF Model with Kain-Fritsch cumulus scheme (bias-corrected SINTEX-F2) has better performance in forecasting the onset dates over Limpopo (the Highveld region) compared to other models, thereby indicating the forecast of onset dates over different regions of South Africa to be model dependent. The results of this study are important for improving the forecast of onset dates over South Africa.