UNESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee WGH hosted AOP1 Training Workshop 2025 on POSSIM in Guam, USA
Referring to the decision of the 57th Session of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee (TC), the Working Group on Hydrology (WGH) held a 5-day training workshop for its AOP1 on “Knowledge Sharing on Storm Surge Inundation Modeling- the Pacific Ocean Storm Surge Inundation Modeling (POSSIM)” in Guam, USA from 15 to 19 September 2025.
The workshop was attended by 6 participants from three Members, namely China, the Philippines and Thailand.
This Workshop builds on the momentum from last year’s successful session in Nanjing, China, continuing the collaborative development and localization of the Pacific Ocean Storm Surge Inundation Model (POSSIM) among TC Members. The content of this workshop includes an annual summary report on storm surges in the Pacific region, a newly developed version of POSSIM along with guidance, and academic exchanges with the U.S. National Weather Service.
The participants actively shared their experiences in storm surge forecasting, while also discussing the future direction of meteorological and hydrological hazard communication, as well as the science behind tropical cyclone – induced inundation. Members jointly worked on adding improvements to the new version of POSSIM, and achieved proper localized versions of POSSIM for further research and experimentation. The Chinese team upgraded the regional data processing mechanism, solving the cumbersome localization issues of unit conversion and standardized processing for storm surge data from different countries. The teams from the Philippines and Thailand identified and fixed data output and operational bugs in the model.
The trainees were enthusiastic and cooperative, achieving localized runs of storm surge and inundation mapping in various regions of concern in their respective countries. The project leader Edwin Montvila gave his high recognition to the team for successfully completing the tasks and creating plans for moving forward with the AOP project. TC Members will now continue to collaborate with each other through means such as GitHub, as to continue to improve on localization of POSSIM and sharing findings during extensive runs with historical and upcoming tropical cyclones in the region.
During the seminar, the participants visited the Guam Weather Forecast Office of the National Weather Service (NWS). The practical applications of the weather forecast data collection system were demonstrated, such as the Upper Air Balloon Launches. Participants actively exchanged ideas with the WFO Guam staff, sharing their own experiences in hydrologic forecasting and gaining a great deal from the interaction.
