Widespread heavy rainfall produced extensive river and stream flooding across the Norman, Oklahoma National Weather Service Forecast Office (NWSFO) area of responsibility during the week of March 15-19, 1998. This was the largest flood event in terms of areal coverage since the installations of the WFO Hydrologic Forecast System (WHFS, November 1994) and the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS, December 1997) at the Norman NWSFO.
This study will examine the hydrologic event from three perspectives. First, the synoptic weather pattern leading up to the excessive rainfall will be documented. Second, the utility of HydroView and RiverPro, both components of WHFS, will be examined according to their utility to identify flood-threatened areas and generate appropriate flood warnings and statements. Finally, issues relating to the integration of a variety of hydrometeorological data sets, including WSR-88D radar, Oklahoma Mesonetwork, NWS cooperative observers, and manual and automated stream gauge readings will be presented