 The National Meteorological Center 's Global Spectral Model was introduced during August 1980 . The European Centre for Medium @-@ Range Weather Forecasts model debuted on May 1 , 1985 . The United Kingdom Met Office has been running their global model since the late 1980s , adding a 3D @-@ Var data assimilation scheme in mid @-@ 1999 . The Canadian Meteorological Centre has been running a global model since 1991 . The United States ran the Nested Grid Model ( NGM ) from 1987 to 2000 , with some features lasting as late as 2009 . Between 2000 and 2002 , the Environmental Modeling Center ran the Aviation ( AVN ) model for shorter range forecasts and the Medium Range Forecast ( MRF ) model at longer time ranges . During this time , the AVN model was extended to the end of the forecast period , eliminating the need of the MRF and thereby replacing it . In late 2002 , the AVN model was renamed the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) . The German Weather Service has been running their global hydrostatic model , the GME , using a hexagonal icosohedral grid since 2002 . The GFS is slated to eventually be supplanted by the Flow @-@ following , finite @-@ volume Icosahedral Model ( FIM ) , which like the GME is gridded on a truncated icosahedron , in the mid @-@ 2010s . 
