A minor release of the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS), EFAS version 4.4, is now launched operationally and will be will be valid from the 12:UTC run.

 

EFAS v4.4 introduces minor changes to the system, as well as some general bug fixes. Here is a summary of the main changes:

• Modifications to the Reporting Points layer – introducing 20-year return period threshold (purple points) to visualise expected severe flood events, updated dynamic reporting points algorithm, and reporting point thresholds to better align with the notification criteria. Minor changes also implemented in reporting points pop-up window
• New ‘Probability persistence’ layer, allowing users to better understand how reporting points are created
• Improvements to EFAS entries on the Climate Data Store (CDS): a new functionality to subset the geographical area when downloading EFAS data, and availability of time invariant variables on the CDS (including upstream area, elevation, soil depth, wilting point, and field capacity).
• Upgrade of the post-processed forecasts, with new calibration of the post-processed model and post-processed forecasts available for an additional 398 stations.
• Upgrades to the EFAS Information System. Introducing two new layer (flood probability persistence and Social Media Activity Analysis), an EFAS informal feedback collection functionality, and a feature allowing to share information from the EFAS dashboard through social media
• Significant updates to our CEMS-Flood documentation, with a new ‘CEMS-Flood Service User Guide’ (including information on data access, data catalog/structure/formats, guides on how to work with CEMS-Floods data). Please note the new web address of the EFAS and
• GloFAS wikis has changed to https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/CEMS/CEMS-Flood and will be visible following the release.

For more technical information on the release of EFAS version 4.4 please see the dedicated wiki page.