It is difficult to believe that Weather and Forecasting is starting its 19th yr as an American Meteorological Society (AMS) journal. Several of us can remember discussions about this new journal and its purpose in the hallways of our graduate colleges—a time that does not seem so distant. Over the past years, Weather and Forecasting has continued to fulfill its purpose to provide a medium for interaction among AMS members worldwide who are involved and interested in operational forecasting. Indeed, the journal appears to have hit its stride as a brief survey of a recent issue yields papers on topics ranging from statistical postprocessing of model data to verification methods, mesoscale convective systems to cold-air damming, high-resolution model forecasts to cloud-scale ensembles, and polar lows to hurricanes. And in this particular issue, 32% of the papers were from authors outside the United States. As we begin our tenure as the new editorial team for Weather and Forecasting, we hope that, with your help, we can continue to improve this journal's relevance and importance to operational forecasting.
We want to thank especially the outgoing editorial team of Robert A. Maddox and Gregory P. Byrd for their hard work, dedication, and accomplishments over the past 3 yr, and for their help during the transition period. Editors rarely get praise, but both Bob and Greg deserve praise for the job they have done. If you have interacted with either Bob or Greg as an author or reviewer, then consider sending a brief thank you to them for supporting all of us who are interested in operational forecasting. We also have been blessed by a talented and hard-working board of associate editors, who are thanked for their timely input and support. Good associate editors are certainly one of the keys to a successful journal.
An important aspect of this journal that we plan to continue is the use of a double-blind review process, in which both authors' and reviewers' names are anonymous. This review process was started several years ago, with the full support of AMS, and so far the input we have received from authors and reviewers is 3 to 1 in favor of the double blind. But perhaps most importantly, we believe that the use of a double-blind review can help to remove biases that may occur, even unconsciously, in the review process. Thus, we will continue the double-blind review process and ask for your continued support of this experiment.
As editors, we plan to continue to encourage submissions in four categories, namely Articles, Notes and Correspondence, NCEP Notes, and Forecaster's Forum. We particularly want to highlight the Forecaster's Forum department, which is available for expressing opinions about forecast problems, forecast experiences, and thoughts on the future of forecasting, as a unique department within all the AMS journals and one that could be used more often and more effectively to stimulate greater dialogue within the community. With all the changes that operational forecasting will undergo in the next few years, topics for Forecaster's Forum abound! Operational forecasters are especially encouraged to submit manuscripts to all of the available categories. Finally, we also plan to continue with the concept of “special issues” that have a single focus or theme, and are delighted that this first issue under our tenure is a special issue on the 2000 Sydney Olympics World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) Forecast Demonstration Project. If you have ideas for special issues, then please let us know.
We very much look forward to the challenges and experiences ahead as our tenure as editors for Weather and Forecasting begins. We hope that you will help and support us in this endeavor by contributing your ideas, proposals, comments, and, most importantly, manuscripts.
