Progress in subseasonal to seasonal prediction through a joint weather and climate community effort

Public expectations have been set for the development of skillful meteorological forecasts of unprecedented leads out to a month or two, filling the so-called subseasonal to seasonal prediction gap. While both the weather and climate communities, coordinated internationally by the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), respectively, can contribute to address this challenge, neither of them can effectively meet the challenge alone. The WWRP/ WCRP Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Prediction Project and related initiatives such as the Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (MAPP) Program S2S Prediction Task Force are providing a framework for needed weather-climate community interactions. Such joint weather-climate efforts need to be sustained in the future for continued progress in subseasonal to seasonal prediction.