 In the United States , the first operational regional model , the limited @-@ area fine @-@ mesh ( LFM ) model , was introduced in 1971 . Its development was halted , or frozen , in 1986 . The NGM debuted in 1987 and was also used to create model output statistics for the United States . Its development was frozen in 1991 . The ETA model was implemented for the United States in 1993 and in turn was upgraded to the NAM in 2006 . The U.S. also offers the Rapid Refresh ( which replaced the RUC in 2012 ) for short @-@ range and high @-@ resolution applications ; both the Rapid Refresh and NAM are built on the same framework , the WRF . Metéo France has been running their Action de Recherche Petite Échelle Grande Échelle ( ALADIN ) mesoscale model for France , based upon the ECMWF global model , since 1995 . In July 1996 , the Bureau of Meteorology implemented the Limited Area Prediction System ( LAPS ) . The Canadian Regional Finite @-@ Elements model ( RFE ) went into operational use on April 22 , 1986 . It was followed by the Canadian Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM ) mesoscale model on February 24 , 1997 . 
