Potential and shortcomings of numerical weather prediction models in providing meteorological data for urban air pollution forecasting

The last decade progress in numerical weather prediction (NWP) modelling and studies of urban atmospheric processes for providing meteorological data for urban air pollution forecasting is analysed on examples of several European meteorological centres. Modern nested NWP models are utilising land-use databases down to 1 km resolution or finer, and are approaching the necessary horizontal and vertical resolution suitable for city scale. The recent scientific developments in the field of urban atmospheric physics and the growing availability of high-resolution urban surface characteristics data promise further improvements of the capability of NWP models for this aim. A strategy to improve NWP data for the urban air pollution forecasting is suggested.