NOAA/National Weather Service's Warning Decision Training BranchUnited States Department of Commerce
Commerce Learning Center

Late 2022 MRMS Training Updates for Version 12.2

  • WDTD has updated all the MRMS lessons to reflect changes to product availability (some products were taken off NWS' operational data feed), significant changes to the MRMS hydro products, and add information about the new dual-pol constant altitude products and MRMS' broadening scope.
  • The MRMS Reflectivity Thickness Products lesson was removed from the NWS WFO Forecasters curriculum because the reflectivity thickness products were removed from NWS' operational data feed. You can still access the lesson on this page and via the Full Products Course curriculum on the Commerce Learning Center.
  • The MRMS VLab Products Guide has been updated for MRMS Version 12.2.
  • Training Events Planning Calendar
    Residence/Virtual Courses
    Web-Based Training Release Dates

    Warning Decision Training Division

    Office of Chief Learning Officer

    Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor (MRMS)

     

    Introduction

    Welcome to the Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor (MRMS) training page! The MRMS suite of products represents a different way to use key inputs into warning and forecast decision-making for public, hydrological and aviation service sectors of the NWS and its core partners. MRMS was deployed operationally in October 2014 from the NCEP Central Operations suite of servers and made available to the NWS and the public through a variety of means. MRMS was integrated into AWIPS-2 in September 2015, further solidfying its use in warning operations. As a result, WDTD created products and applications training, the former of which is available on both this page and the Learning Management System (LMS).The applications lessons are no longer supported and only a few lessons are available on this page. This page should be used as a resource to familiarize users with how MRMS is created, its products, and initial steps of applying them in operations. We update this page to account for the latest upgrades to the MRMS suite, so check back occasionally.


    MRMS Course Tracks

    Below is a flowchart depicting the available MRMS course tracks. Depending on your job responsibilities, there are different tracks to take within the Products course:

    flowchart

    Use this flowchart to determine which tracks you wish to take.


     

    Accessing the Lessons

    Click on the panels below to access the content for each course track. There are two ways to access the MRMS Products Course training materials:
    • Web Version - Lesson streams from the WDTD web server and does not require log-in.
    • LMS Version - Links to the Commerce Learning Center (aka LMS); allows NWS employees to get completion credit, but log-in is required.


    MRMS Products Course Tracks

    MRMS Products Course for WFO Forecasters (Version 12.2)

    MRMS Overview

    Reflectivity Products

    Hail Products

    Velocity-based Products

    Lightning Products

    Hydro Products

    MRMS Hydro Products Course (Version 12.2)

    NOTE: This track is meant for Hydro Focal Points, or the interested user. The three lessons below simply go into the details introduced in the "Hydro Products Overview" lesson. No person should take all four lessons (unless they want to see duplicate information).

    MRMS Overview

    Hydro Products

    MRMS Severe/Aviation Products Course (Version 12.2)

    MRMS Overview

    Reflectivity Products

    Hail Products

    Velocity-based Products

    Lightning Products

    MRMS Full Products Course

    Take everything from the Hydro and Severe/Aviation Products Courses.

    FLASH Products Course

    Overview - This course is designed for users wanting knowledge of Flooded Locations And Simulated Hydrographs (FLASH) products.

  • FLASH Model-Derived Products: Web Version | LMS Version
  • FLASH Comparison Products: Web Version | LMS Version

  • MRMS Applications Course

    NOTE: These lessons are no longer supported and may contain some outdated material. However, most of these MMRS severe weather applications are still applicable.

    MRMS Severe Applications Course

    PREREQUISITE: MRMS Severe/Aviation Products Course lessons

    • Screen and Rank Storms by Order of Threat: Web Version
      This lesson describes how to use MRMS products to screen storms that threaten life and property over your county warning areas (CWA) and rank them by order of threat.
    • Evaluation of Tornado Hazard: Web Version
      This lesson describes how MRMS products can be integrated into an operational warning environment to identify tornado location and assess short-term tornado threat.
    • Evaluation of Severe Hail Hazard: Web Version
      This lesson describes how MRMS products can be integrated into an operational warning environment to determine the presence and characteristics of severe hail.

     

    MRMS Products Guide

    This guide, available on the NOAA VLab, is a webpage library of MRMS products categorized by product type (e.g. severe, precipitation). As shown in the image below, use the dropdown menu to find product information such as: resolution, inputs, strengths and limitations, and applications (including examples).

    VLab Products Guide


    Feedback/Questions

    WDTD welcomes your feedback on our MRMS training, as well are here to answer any questions on the content. Please send us your comments/questions to the following e-mail address:

    MRMS email link

    Acknowledgements

    Current and Former Training Developers:

    Alyssa Bates, WDTD
    Jill Hardy, WDTD
    James LaDue, WDTD
    Mike Magsig, WDTD
    Robert Prentice, WDTD
    Chris Spannagle, WDTD
    Matt Elliott, SPC
    Steven Martinaitis, NSSL
    Clark Payne, ROC
    Dave Cokely, retired DSCS
    Tiffany Meyer, former NSSL
    Matt Taraldsen, former WDTD
    Bradley Workman, former WDTD

    Current and Former Collaborators:

    Steve Cocks, NSSL
    Karen Cooper, NSSL
    JJ Gourley, NSSL
    Kenneth Howard, NSSL
    Darrel Kingfield, ESRL
    Valliappa Lakshmanan, retired NSSL
    Carrie Langston, NSSL
    Matt Mahalik, NOAA OAR
    Kiel Ortega, NSSL
    Ron Przybylinski, retired NWS
    Heather Reeves, NSSL
    Heather Grams, former ROC
    Greg Stumpf, NSSL/NWS MDL
    Brandon Smith, NSSL
    Travis Smith, NSSL
    Greg Story, WGRFC
    Ray Wolf, WFO DVN
    Jian Zhang, NSSL

    This project was previously funded by the NEXGEN office and NSSL, courtesy of Mark Miller and Ken Howard.