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Lowell to Impact Hawaii; Heat Persists in the South-Central U.S.

Hurricane Lowell is forecast to pass west of Kauai`s coastal waters tonight. Impacts such as high surf and heavy rain could impact all of the islands. Sweltering heat remains across the South-Central Plains and Lower/Middle Mississippi Valley into this week with limited nighttime relief. Periods of moderate to heavy rainfall will be possible through Tuesday morning in the northern Rockies. Read More >

Overview:

The NWS is changing the format of Flash Flood Warning text products to impact based warnings.  Effective November 18, 2019, each Flash Flood Warning will contain a bulleted format of information describing the flash flood, the source of the information, and a description of the expected impact.

With this change, the NWS is aiming to improve the public response to Flash Flood Warnings by providing easily readable information while Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA)* will only be sent to mobile devices for high level flash flood events that require immediate life-saving action.

With the ability to better characterize the threat of flooding and the expected severity of the impacts, the NWS hopes to lessen the perception that the NWS over-alerts for flash flooding.


*Through November 18, 2019, ALL Flash Flood Warnings have triggered WEA alerts. With more than 4,000 Flash Flood Warnings being issued in the USA each year, there is public perception that the NWS over-alerts for flash flooding.

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Photo: American Red Cross

Impact-Based Flash Flood Warning Fact Sheet

 

 

Example Warning:

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