Since 2015, five forecasting tools have been developed by José Manuel Gálvez and collaborators during his tenure at NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC) International Desks. These tools include the Gálvez-Davison Index and Dynamics Tool (GDID), the Trade Wind Inversion Characterization Tool (TWIN), the Hail and Severe Weather Environments Tool (GR02T), the Front and Airmass Characterization Tool (FRAM), and the Tropical Wave Detection Tool (TROPW). Their development was driven by operational forecasting needs identified throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. Each tool was specifically designed to support regional forecasting practices and has since seen widespread adoption. In August 2025, all five tools underwent enhancements aimed at improving visualization, optimizing and simplifying the underlying code, and strengthening the mathematical rigor of their algorithms.
This special training session will present the updated version of the five tools. We will discuss their purpose, application, how to access their output, how to access the code, and we will apply them together with satellite imagery to understand the weather present during the session. Note that given the large amount of information for a 45-minute session, we will not be able to dive with too much detail into each tool at this time. Yet, we plan to do so in special sessions tailored for each tool in the coming months.
GoTo Webinar is the software platform used. The session will begin at 17:00 UTC, with the webinar opening 10 minutes earlier (16:50 UTC) for those who wish to check their microphone.