A Comparison of the Canadian Global and Regional Meteorological Ensemble Prediction Systems for Short-Term Hydrological Forecasting

Meteorological ensemble prediction systems (M-EPS) are generally set up at lower resolution than for their deterministic counterparts. Operational hydrologists are thus more prone to selecting deterministic meteorological forecasts for driving their hydrological models. Limited-area implementation of meteorological models may become a convenient way of providing the sought after higher-resolution meteorological ensemble forecasts. This study aims to compare the Canadian operational global EPS (M-GEPS) and the experimental regional EPS (M-REPS) for short-term operational hydrological ensemble forecasting over eight watersheds, for which performance and reliability was assessed. Higher-resolution deterministic forecasts were also available for the study. Results showed that both M-EPS provided better performance than their deterministic counterparts when comparing their mean continuous ranked probability score (MCRPS) and mean absolute error (MAE), especially beyond a 24-h horizon. The global and regional M-EPS led to very similar performance in terms of RMSE, but the latter produced a larger spread and improved reliability. The M-REPS was deemed superior to its operational global counterpart, especially for its ability to better depict forecast uncertainty.