Meteorological hazards - visualization system for national protection against extreme hazards for Poland

Meteorological hazard maps are one of the components of the IT System for Country Protection against extreme hazards (ISOK) created by a consortium of Polish institutions, including the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management – National Research Institute. These maps present meteorological phenomena such as: temperature extremes, heavy and flood-producing rainfall, strong winds, intensive snowfall, fogs, glaze, rime and thunderstorms with hail. These elements were chosen arbitrarily due to recorded or estimated losses. The main aim of the maps is to present visualization methods of hazard forecast with consideration of climatological (historical) background. To identify areas especially exposed to the above meteorological hazards, extensive climatological analyses were performed, based on long-term daily data (mainly the 1951-2010 period). The main component of the warning system is a set of prediction maps created automatically on the basis of scientific algorithms that provide the probability of the occurrence of particular phenomena, or the conditions favourable for them. The algorithms’ structure, based on information about physical processes in the atmosphere, as well as detailed climatological analysis, enables the reclassification of the forecast values – predicted by the ALADIN mesoscale atmospheric model – into four groups of any hazard at the gridded points. Finally, the information will be interpolated and will result in the production of maps of spatial distribution presenting the objective probability of a particular hazard, i.e. its actual risk. Results of historical analysis are to be presented for the public by a number of climatological maps, and accompanied by additional fact sheets to provide society with an actual view of the spatial distribution of the distinguished weather phenomena, and the interrelated risks.