The purpose of the NAME Forecast Forum (NFF) is to provide, for the North American Monsoon research and applications communities, an accessible, online forum, for the posting, distribution, monitoring and synthesis of intra-seasonal and seasonal precipitation forecasts of the North American Monsoon. This purpose will be achieved through completion of the following activities:

• Monitoring key indices of monsoon behavior
• Monitoring forecast skill of intra-seasonal to seasonal predictions of the North American Monsoon (NAM)
• Make publicly available, a range of operational and experimental NAM intra-seasonal and seasonal precipitation forecast products
• Linking NAM monitoring activities with other monsoon monitoring activities such as that currently under development by NOAA Climate Prediction Center and the North American Monsoon climate research community
• Linking NAM monitoring and forecasting activities to the societal applications community that is cultivating improved uses and communication of monsoon information

    As an initial implementation, spatial maps and regionalized indices (averages) of warm season precipitation over the North American Monsoon region have been created from selected operational seasonal forecast models and real-time monitoring products. The regions used in the NFF were developed synthesized from published climatological analyses (i.e. regionalization studies) of historical precipitation data and are also similar to forecast zones used during 2004 North American Monsoon Experiment (see http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/name/). Over time additional monitoring products will be added.

    For a full description of the rationale and strategy of the NFF please refer to the complete workplan. Parties interested in either contributing a forecast product or with inquiries about different monitoring products are encouraged to contact David Gochis (gochis@rap.ucar.edu) or Wei Shi (Wei.Shi@noaa.gov) with their comments.