Ability to forecast regional soil moisture with a distributed hydrological model using ECMWF rainfall forecasts

Abstract

This study mimics an online forecast system to provide nine day-ahead forecasts of regional soil moisture. It uses modified ensemble rainfall forecasts from the numerical weather prediction model of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which is provided by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Office (KNMI). Both the individual ensembles as well as the mean of the ensembles are used as input for a hydrological model of a 70-km2 study area during March–November 2006. The outcomes are compared to the model run with high-resolution rainfall fields (based on 14 rain gauges within the study area and meteorological radar) as input. It is shown that the total spatial mean rainfall is forecasted very well for all lead times. The measured rainfall (spatial mean) shows a distribution with peaks at 0–1 and .10 mm day. These peaks are underestimated by the ensemble mean of the forecasts and this underestimation increases with lead time. This is not the case when ensemble members are used. Besides, the modeled uncertainty in rainfall by ECMWF underestimates the true uncertainty for all lead times and the number of rainfall events (thresholds 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mm) is overestimated. Absolute temporal mean bias values in root zone storage—that is, soil moisture—larger than 1 mm start to show for lead times longer than 3 days. The lower and upper bounds of bias for a lead time of 9 days are approximately 24 and 7 mm, respectively (negative values mean the forecasted soil moisture is underestimated). The bias in root zone storage shows a spatial pattern that represents the spatial pattern of total rainfall: areas with less rainfall than spatial average show a negative bias and vice versa. Local differences within this spatial pattern are due to land use and soil type. The results suggest that ensemble forecasts of soil moisture using ensemble rainfall forecasts from ECMWF are of practical use for water management, even at regional scales.