Announcement July 2004 The International Symposium on Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting (WSN05) is organized by the World Weather Research Programme and hosted by Meteo-France. The Symposium is sponsored by Meteo-France and Eumetsat, and endorsed by the American Meteorological Society, the Royal Meteorological Society, the European Meteorological Society and the Société Météorologique de France. The Symposium will be held at Meteo-France, Toulouse, from 5 to 9 September 2005. The aim of the Symposium is to examine the capabilities, opportunities and requirements for improved forecasts in the 0-6 hour nowcasting timeframe. Special emphasis will be placed on forecasts of high impact weather such as summer convective hazards (heavy rain, hail, lightning, high winds), as well as winter weather events (snowstorm, blizzards, etc.) and other hazardous conditions (fog, etc.) Since the 0-6 hour period spans the timeframe where it is known that both traditional Nowcasting techniques and NWP can contribute useful information, both approaches will be covered at the Symposium as well as methods that combine Nowcasting and NWP. Special emphasis will be given to the needs of end users such as the transportation industry, emergency services, hydrology, agriculture, construction industry, recreation, power industry, air quality monitoring and homeland security. Presentations are also encouraged on both operational and prototype forecasts system as well as testbeds for the development of such systems. The Symposium will conclude by identifying gaps in current knowledge, opportunities and key future areas of work. Papers are solicited in all areas of nowcasting and very short range forecasting. Especially encouraged are submission of papers for the following sessions : (1) Observational needs for improving very short range forecasts (2) Nowcasting techniques (3) High resolution NWP (4) Basic understanding of mesoscale dynamics in 0-6 hour timeframe (5) Data Assimilation (6) Operational systems and the role of the human (7) Verification – procedures and results (8) Applications (9) Societal Impacts and user needs Abstracts are due by April 1st, 2005 Participants can submit their abstracts via this Web site. For later information please contact the programme chairperson : Andrew Crook, NCAR, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO, USA, 80307-3000 (tel 303-497-8980; email crook@ucar.edu) or the chair of the Local Organizing Committee : Stéphane Sénési, Météo-France Dprévi, 42 Av. G.Coriolis, F-31057 Toulouse Cedex 1, France (tel +33-561-078-630, email stephane.senesi@meteo.fr )