Flood Safety Awareness Week – Day 1 of 5
What is AHPS?
AHPS is the National Weather Service’s ongoing effort to modernize its hydrologic services. AHPS, which stands for Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, will provide improved river and flood forecasts and water information across America to protect life and property and ensure the nation's economic well being. AHPS graphical products are available clicking here.
Who can benefit from AHPS?
Everyone who makes decisions based on water, including farmers, river boat pilots, emergency managers, municipal water supply officials, recreationists, and dam operators can benefit from AHPS. If you live, play or travel by waterways, you should also be aware.
What will AHPS do for me?
Because every minute counts, AHPS will help emergency managers be more proactive to fight a flood. AHPS provides information for community leaders and business owners to make better life-saving decisions about evacuating people or moving property before a flood. The navigation community will be able to plan with better confidence and optimize barge and shipping operations, saving millions of dollars each year. Recreational users will be able to stay out of harm’s way.
AHPS, with its suite of enhanced information, provides the public with more detailed and accurate answers to the following questions. These questions are of utmost concern when the flooding threat increases:
How high will the rivers rise?
When will the river reach its peak?
Where will the flooding occur?
How long will the flood last?
How long will the drought last?
How certain is the forecast?
Answers to these questions will help give the public better information in the event of a flood. The topics that we will focus on the rest of this week are as follows:
Tuesday: Turn around, don’t drown
Wednesday: Tropical cyclone and inland flooding
Thursday: Snowmelt and ice jams, including the spring flood outlook
Friday: Flood safety
Become my facebook friend here by “liking” my fan page, and "follow" me on Twitter here (@PeteWeatherBeat). For more on your weather forecast, click on “Weather” and then the “Live Triple Doppler Radar” tab on our weather page. Make sure you refresh the Doppler radar to see the very latest information, as well. Furthermore, we have our new Interactive Doppler Radar on our website. You can zoom down to street level with Interactive Doppler Radar. You are in total control of where the radar can zoom in. Give it a try. In addition, you may tune to NBC Weather Plus on Time Warner Cable digital channel 133 or over the air 3.3 to get the very latest weather updates locally and nationally.
