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In this paper we present the upgrade of a web tool designed to help in the decision making process for water reservoirs management in Spain. The tool, called S-ClimWaRe (Seasonal Climate predictions in support of Water Reservoirs management) is organized in two main displaying panels. The first one -diagnostic panel- allows the user to explore, for any water reservoir or grid point over continental Spain, the existing hydrological variability and risk linked to climate variability. The second one -forecasting panel- provides probabilistic seasonal predictions for some variables of interest. Following users’ need the tool initially covers the extended winter season (from November to March), when the North Atlantic Oscillation pattern strongly influences the hydrological interannual variability in South-Western Europe. This climate service is fully user driven with a strong commitment of users and stakeholders that has allowed continuous improvement of this tool, meeting users requirements and incorporating latest scientific progress.The latest S-ClimWaRe version -developed in the framework of the MEDSCOPE project within the European Research Area for Climate Services (ERA4CS) initiative- includes some technical enhancements requested by customers and new seasonal predictions obtained through application of two post-processing steps to ECMWF System-5 forecasts. These two steps consist of a downscaling statistical procedure and a new methodology that combines different skilful NAO forecasts to create an optimal NAO pdf that is then used to weight the ensemble members forecasts of hydrological variables. The new upgraded S-ClimWaRe web tool enriches the forecasting panel with precipitation and water inflow forecast skill, and provides additional forecasts for accumulated snowfall and temperature. A prototype based on two different hydrological models to produce the seasonal forecasts of water inflow has also been tested over a pilot dam. These hydrological models are driven by the downscaled precipitation and temperature forecasts also introduced in the web viewer. The assessment of this downscaling procedure shows promising results with respect to the existing seasonal forecasts based on a statistical approach.

Número monográfico dedicado al "18th EMS Annual Meeting: European Conference for Applied Meteorology and Climatology 2018". Under the S-ClimWaRe (Seasonal Climate prediction in support of Water Reservoirs management) initiative, a climate service to support decision-making process by water managers in Spanish reservoirs has been developed. It consists in a web-based toolbox jointly designed with stakeholders. The website is organized in two main areas. The first one allows the user to explore, for any water reservoir or grid point over continental Spain, the existing hydrological variability and risk linked to climate variability. This is performed through a set of indicators obtained from time series of hydrological and meteorological observations and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, identified as main climate driver in this geographical region. The second main area provides seasonal forecasts of NAO and both reservoir inflow and precipitation, complemented by information on probabilistic forecasts skill. Currently the NAO index is the only driver implemented for display, and forecasts come from a statistical forecasting system developed only for the extended winter NDJFM period. Through the MEDSCOPE (MEDiterranean Services Chain based On climate PrEdictions) project new sources of predictability and relationships with different climate drivers will be explored. Forecast skill improvement is expected after the combination and weighting of ensemble members of the Copernicus seasonal forecasting systems. These forecasts will feed more sophisticated hydrological models. The toolbox has been flexible designed with respect to sources of seasonal forecasts and extension to additional drivers, variables and seasons. In this way, user requirements and scientific progress will be easily incorporated to new versions of this climate service. The research leading to these results has received funding from EUPORIAS and MEDSCOPE projects. EUPORIAS was funded by the European Commission through the 7th Framework Programme for Research, grant agreement 308291. MEDSCOPE is co-funded by the European Commission as part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, grant agreement 690462.