The new service provides detailed water data and forecast information. Source: U.S. National Weather Service

The information needed to help agencies, communities and homeowners prepare for flood conditions is now available on a website updated by the U.S. National Weather Service.

The new National Water Prediction Service portal centralizes data from the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service and the Office of Water Prediction and provides faster updates of hydrographs, which depict water level observations and forecasts in a single graphic. When a gauge along a river experiences heavy rainfall and is forecast to rise above the flood stage, U.S. National Weather Service hydrologists can relay this information to emergency managers and the public. River flood forecasts peer ahead for up to seven days.

The revised system capability also includes a National Water Model, which offers guidance for the first time to ungauged areas of streams and creeks nationwide. This hydrologic modeling framework simulates observed and forecast streamflow over the continental U.S. The model forecasts complement official U.S. National Weather Service river forecasts for 4,000 locations with approximately 3.4 million additional river reaches or areas that do not have river gauges.

Users can also tap into Flood Inundation Mapping services that currently cover 10% of the country.