THE DENVER MESOSCALE FORECAST EXPERIMENT:

The occurrence of two significant tornadoes in northeast Col-orado during the Denver Mesoscale Forecast Experiment pro-vided an opportunity to assess forecast methodology and new data sets in a real-time, operational environment using afunc-tional prototype Advanced Weather Interactive Processing Sys-tem (A WIPS) workstation and Doppler radar. One dedicated mesoscale forecaster prepared an outlook prior to the event and issued warnings during the event based on data available from the Mesoscale Analysis and Prediction System (MAPS), the Local Analysis and Prediction System (LAPS) and the WSR-88D Doppler radar. It is shown that a logical and scientifically sound approach to forecasting using new high resolution data sets can provide a significant and practical lead time in assess-ing a potential severe weather event at the local office level. 1