1. Thorpex North American Regional Committee (NARC)
Malaquias Pena Mendez with input from Zoltan Toth, Brian Mills and Jorge Vazquez

2. NARC Update
ICSC-9 report from NARC provides a more detailed update of progress over the past few years
NARC renewal and mandate questions first raised at the joint 5th NAEFS workshop and Thorpex NARC meeting in Cuernavaca in May 2010: A set of country reports/activities vs. truly multi-lateral projects, demonstrations, and exchanges across the Americas?

3. NARC Update
ICSC-9 report Action Item (21). NARC members contacted Celeste Saulo (Argentina) with the purpose of exchanging information on possible collaborative projects. Draft proposal for La Plata Basin Research Development Project (RDP) for heavy precipitation was exchanged. The RDP was presented at the 9th GIFS-TIGGE meeting.
ICSC-9 report Action Item (22). NARC did not hold an official meeting in conjunction with the 6th NAEFS workshop in Monterey, California and therefore did not request resources for South and Central American and Caribbean participation.

4. NARC Update
New Mexican National Committee promoted by NARC. An organizational meeting took place at the Mexican annual meteorological congress, where different areas of THORPEX research were discussed. A list of activities were prioritized, including:
national science plan update
regional modeling experiment for heavy precipitation in southern states of Mexico
plan for a training workshop on ensemble forecasting.

5. NARC Update Mexican intercomparison regional model forecast experiment
7 national meteorological institutions involved
identical initial conditions and distinct model parameterizations
Mexican Servicio Meteorologico Nacional personnel and NARC members enabled a 3D-Var data assimilation scheme to provide initial conditions to permit evaluation of the effects of model parameterization and the impact of local observations
preliminary results have been produced and a workshop to discuss final results with collaborating institutions is plan to be held in November..

6. NARC Update Canadian contributions include:
completion of activities associated with Thorpex-IPY and Vancouver 2010 Olympics
active involvement in NAEFS, S2S and PPP projects
planning for SERA activities including a potential Canadian extension to the Lazo et al economic sensitivity analysis
planning for a new expanded “SNARC” initiative once future Thorpex directions are clarified (e.g., Large multinational river basin studies in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence, Rio Grande, La Plata Basin)
U.S. Thorpex activities (Zoltan Toth)