Predictability, uncertainty and decision making: a unified perspective to build a bridge from weather to climate

The unavoidability of uncertainty in predictions, and accepting this fact could be advantageous in the ongoing discussions on how to communicate climate projections and the associated uncertainties by learning from the knowledge base that exists for communicating similar information on weather and seasonal predictions that are generated on a much more frequent basis. Similarly, decision-support systems for developing adaptation and mitigation strategies can use predictions on shorter range as a test-bed to hone their strategies to incorporate predictive uncertainty when dealing with longer-range projections. By practicing the use of decision making tools and the incorporation of uncertain predictions on weather and seasonal time scale, decision makers can improve their level of comfort in accepting uncertainty inherent in longer range predictions and projections on a much less infrequent basis. In this paradigm, evolving strategy for seamless predictions can be blended with a strategy for seamless communication of uncertain information and also with seamless application of decision support systems.