National Water Prediction Service: A New Era for National Weather Service Visualizations and Data Services

The National Weather Service (NWS) recently deployed a new cloud-based data visualization and data services website, water.noaa.gov, known as the National Water Prediction Service (NWPS). The 2024 release of this new generation of real-time data services and visualizations represents a significant expansion of the quantity of actionable public information available to promote public awareness and for provision of NWS IDSS to stakeholders during both routine and extreme weather conditions. NWPS replaces the long-standing Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) platform as the one-stop portal into NWS water prediction information. In addition to the enhanced display of legacy information, a new suite of visualizations and map services provides real-time analysis and forecast services from the National Water Model (NWM) covering 3.4 million river miles in the United States defined in the National Hydrography Dataset.

The hydrologic forecast information provided on the AHPS platform was limited to NWS River Forecast Center (RFC) forecast discharge hydrographs at approximately 3300 locations coincident with stream gauges. NWPS greatly expands upon this to include both NWM and NWS RFC forecasted discharges, deterministic and probabilistic streamflow, peak discharges, and high flow arrival times. NWPS also displays experimental flood inundation mapping services. Currently a phased implementation provides flood inundation maps for a portion of the United States that represents approximately 10 percent of the U.S. population, with national expansion occurring over the next few years. Accompanying the web-based visualization is a suite of data services that offer Application Programming Interface (API) access to NWS hydrologic information. This presentation will provide a detailed look into this major advance in the provision of our nation’s water prediction services via the new products and services available within the NWPS.