CAFO Operations

CAFO Operations's role in the weather forecast

The General Forecasting Division operates mainly through the Central Analysis and Forecast Office (CAFO), located in Glasnevin Headquarters. It links with a dependent forecast office in RTÉ, the national radio and television station. CAFO Operations comprises of a team of Meteorological Officers, Senior Meteorological Officers and Meteorologists.

Once the raw data have been processed successfully by I.T., they are then passed on to the team of Meteorological Officers within CAFO Operations. They work 24 hours a day on shift rotattion, insuring that charts are presented in a meaningful user format. Each hour, a new set of hourly charts must be printed, which record observations from all around Ireland and the UK. Each station on the map displays information on the following elements: temperature, pressure, pressure tendency, amount of cloud, cloud type, dew point, visibility, wet bulb temperature, wind speed and direction. This information is then plotted on the charts for each station.

If there are sferics (thunder/lightning) around Ireland or the UK, then these are marked in on the chart. Should any Irish data be omitted, I.T. is contacted immediately. In some instances, data may have to be plotted by hand. The chart is passed to the forecaster on duty who then analyses it.

CAFO Operations is also responsible for a number of other technical charts, i.e. Surface Atlantic Charts and Tephigrams. These are also analysed by the Meteorologists to aid them in their forecast preparation. In addition, certain climate figures are recorded for each day and are used by forecasters when reflecting on the day's weather.

Once all the necessary information is accessible and plotted, it is then passed to the CAFO Forecaster to determine the weather ahead.

Weather forecasts are issued accordingly. TV and Radio forecasts are presented mostly by the forecasting team themselves. Once forecasts are complete they are passed back to CAFO Operations to be faxed and emailed to State Agencies and customers alike. At this stage forecasts are updated on the Met Éireann website.