Articles | Volume 21, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4681-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4681-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
| 
15 Sep 2017
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 15 Sep 2017
A national-scale seasonal hydrological forecast system: development and evaluation over Britain
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK
Helen N. Davies
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK
Alison L. Kay
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK
Anca Brookshaw
ECMWF, Shinfield Park, Reading, RG2 9AX, UK
Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, UK
Adam A. Scaife
Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, UK
College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QF, UK
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Seán Donegan, Conor Murphy, Shaun Harrigan, Ciaran Broderick, Dáire Foran Quinn, Saeed Golian, Jeff Knight, Tom Matthews, Christel Prudhomme, Adam A. Scaife, Nicky Stringer, and Robert L. Wilby
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Simon J. Dadson, Eleanor Blyth, Douglas Clark, Helen Davies, Richard Ellis, Huw Lewis, Toby Marthews, and Ponnambalan Rameshwaran
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-60, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-60, 2021
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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Flood prediction helps national and regional planning and real-time flood response. In this study we apply and test a new way to make wide area predictions of flooding which can be combined with weather forecasting and climate models to give faster predictions of flooded areas. By simplifying the detailed floodplain topography we can keep track of the fraction of land flooded for hazard mapping purposes. When tested this approach accurately reproduces benchmark datasets for England.
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Short summary
The research presented here provides the first evaluation of the skill of a seasonal hydrological forecast for the UK. The forecast scheme combines rainfall forecasts from the Met Office GloSea5 forecast system with a national-scale hydrological model to provide estimates of river flows 1 to 3 months ahead. The skill in the combined model is assessed for different seasons and regions of Britain, and the analysis indicates that Autumn/Winter flows can be forecast with reasonable confidence.
The research presented here provides the first evaluation of the skill of a seasonal...
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