Areas of expertise

• Nowcasting 
• NWP post-processing
• Precipitation  
• Weather radar 
• Project Management

Publications by Clive Pierce

Current activities

The current focus of Clive's work is on the quantification of uncertainty in high resolution precipitation nowcasts and the use of this uncertainty to improve fluvial and pluvial flood forecasts and warnings. He has developed a stochastic precipitation nowcast model known as STEPS in collaboration with scientists in the Met Office's Ensemble Forecasting Research team, hydrologists working at the CAWCR and the Environment Agency. STEPS is implemented within the Met Office's UKPP system.  

Clive is managing a follow-on R&D project with the aim of generating a high resolution ensemble precipitation forecast with a range of several days. An algorithm similar in design to STEPS has been developed. This integrates ensemble precipitation nowcasts with ensemble NWP precipitation forecasts from the variable (1.5 km) resolution UM and the North Atlantic and European configuration of MOGREPS. The aim is to improve pluvial and fluvial flood warnings issued by the Flood Forecasting Centre (FFC).

In 2008, Clive worked with colleagues in the JCMM on the generation of automated, first guess extreme rainfall warnings for an Extreme Rainfall Alert service. This service was launched by the FFC in July 2008 to provide early warnings of extreme rainfall to local authorities and emergency services. Clive developed a similar service for the Environment Agency in 2010 and this will be extended in 2012 to meet the requirements of the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service and SEPA.

Clive has recently joined the newly formed Impacts team in Numerical Modelling, and will be working closely with colleagues at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology on the implementation of a flood forecasting model on the Met Office's supercomputer.  

Career background

Clive joined the Met Office in 1993 having previously worked as a research scientist at the universities of East Anglia and Birmingham, and briefly, as a meteorologist in Scotland. In the Met Office he has worked in a variety of research and development areas including weather radar and forecasting research.  

External recognition

•  Sub-Editor of Weather, Royal Meteorological Society, 1997-2002