The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) actively supports the activities of the Regional Climate Outlook Forum (RCOF), which brings together experts from climatologically homogeneous regions and provides consensus-based seasonal predictions and information. As one of the RCOFs, the East Asia Winter Climate Outlook Forum (EASCOF) was jointly established by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), and Mongolia's National Agency for Meteorology and Environment Monitoring (NAMEM) in 2012.
The Fifth session of EASCOF (EASCOF-5) was held at JMA's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, from 8 to 10 November 2017. More than 30 experts from China, Japan, Mongolia and the Republic of Korea attended the event, sharing information on the current status of and future plans for seasonal forecasting services in individual National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs). The attendees also discussed recent understandings of phenomena related to seasonal prediction of the East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) and seasonal outlooks for the coming winter. A new session providing a platform for discussion of good practices toward user involvement in climate services was also held to encourage NMHS efforts in the promotion of climate service utilization. At the session, attendees from each NMHS talked about their current efforts to promote the utilization of climate information in collaboration with specific sectors, including those of agriculture, energy and water resources. Invited speakers from the agricultural sector also gave presentations on how climate information had benefitted them, and the attendees engaged in active discussions. The exchanges of knowledge in this three-day forum are expected to help develop attendees' understanding of phenomena related to EAWM and support improvement of their climate services.
Forum materials are available on the EASCOF portal.
