Thursday’s thunderstorm activity was forecast to be less intense than Wednesday’s and would cover the south-eastern and south-central part of Europe. Most of the severe weather events took place in south-eastern Austria where large hail and heavy precipitation were reported. After the verification of the mid-european day1 and day2 forecasts for the 12th of June (shown below), participants had an interesting discussion on the nowcastMIX and VIL products. The group found that high values of VIL can be used to detect large hail. However, since this parameter is calculated from a vertical column, updraft tilting (in sheared environment) and the speed of radar scanning affect the VIL values, and may limit its usability. In nowcastMIX product, participants suggested that instead of predicting all threats in one tool, it would be useful to use seperate categories for hail, wind gusts and heavy precipitation. This would make the comparison with occurred severe weather reports easier.

VILtrack product

nowcastMIX product