Each Member State and Co-operating State is asked to appoint a ‘Meteorological Contact Point’. They provide an active and useful liaison function between ECMWF and the users of its forecast outputs in the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.
Meteorological Contact Points receive information from ECMWF about the meteorological aspects of the operational forecasting system, training activities and relevant events which should be relayed to the appropriate stakeholders within the Member and Co-operating States. They are required to provide feedback concerning the performance of the forecasting system to ECMWF at least annually (for example through participation in the Using ECMWF Forecasts Meeting (UEF), and contributing to the annual reports on Application and Verification of ECMWF products.
Meteorological Contact Points are the local organisers of the triennial liaison visits from ECMWF and work in collaboration with ECMWF to define agendas, identify potential stakeholders in the Member or Co-operating States who may be interested in attending these triennial visits.
The Meteorological Contact Point may refer to the ECMWF Director of Forecasts if they wish to discuss aspects of the daily model output which cannot be handled via the normal channel.