Change to Gridded MOS to remove "blotchiness"

This just forwarded to me from MDL in Silver Spring. The changes are expected to reduce the (what I would contend is) Gridded MOS tendency to analyze too close to single stations in areas of low-density data. Content of the e-mail is shown below:

1) On June 5th, starting with the 12Z cycle, we will be upgrading the GFS-based gridded MOS guidance. All of the elements will be updated to use a newer analysis scheme to eliminate excessive blotchiness and pixelation. We've also extended the coverage by about another 50 km around the CONUS. We are adding five new elements to the existing suite -- wind gust, opaque sky cover, 6- and 12-hr expected precipitation amount, and 24-hr snowfall amount. For more information, please see http://www.weather.gov/mdl/synop/tin/txt/tin06-87aab_gfs_mos_addl.txt.

Bill Bua