EFAS v4.4

The following is a description of EFAS v4.4. For an overview of other EFAS releases, please see: EFAS versioning system

Summary

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

• Reporting Points update: 

• • 20-year return period points have been added (purple points) 
  • The dynamic reporting points algorithm has been completely rewritten following the discussions with DISS and the JRC. The new algorithm has clear goals and is simpler and well understood. 
  • Reporting points thresholds have been updated to be more coherent and in line with the notification rules 
  • A new Probability persistence layer has been added, allowing users to better understand how reporting points are created 
  • Minor changes in the overview table in the reporting points pop-up window

• Improvements to the EFAS entries on the Climate Data Store (CDS):

  • It is now possible to subset the geographical area when downloading EFAS data, by providing a set of coordinates within the EFAS domain. This allows users to request data only for their area of interest and consequently reduces the file sizes downloaded. 

  • The following variables are now available for download on the EFAS entries in netCDF format: upstream area, elevation, soil depth, wilting point, and field capacity. Users can select the version of these variables appropriate for the version of EFAS forecasts they are accessing. 

• Calibration of post-processing station models performed for all stations fulfilling requirements. An additional 398 stations are now post-processed. 
• New EFAS web layers:
  • New Layers: 
    • ERIC Notification Points
    • Flood probability persistence
    • Social Media Activity Analysis - The layer aggregates signals about floods in a specific area from Social Media (Twitter API streaming).
      • The most representative tweets are currently in a separate layer named "Social Media Activity Analysis - Tweets"
  • New Features:
    • EFAS Informal feedback collection
    • Sharing to Social Media from Dashboard - adds a new "Share" button on each dashboard widget, which allows sharing what is currently visible in the widget to social media
• Significant updates to our CEMS-Flood documentation; introducing our new ‘CEMS-Flood Service User Guide’, which includes information on data access, data catalog/structure/formats, guides on how to work with CEMS-Floods data, and more. Please note the new web address of the EFAS and GloFAS wikis has changed to: https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/CEMS/CEMS-Flood 

The following changes to the ERIC Flash Flood Reporting Points layer are only visible to users from EFAS COMP, JRC and DISS teams:

• • The graphs which appear when an ERIC Flash Flood Reporting Point is clicked on the EFAS website have been updated so that 1) a vertical dashed line is now shown at 48 hours lead time, and 2) dashed lines are displayed for the 30th and 70th percentiles rather than the 25th and 75th percentiles.
  • These changes mean the visualisation of this layer will now be consistent with the criteria used for issuing flash flood notifications, as 48 hours is the maximum lead time for issuing a flash flood notification and the 30th percentile is used to identify when the 5-year return period is exceeded. 

Technical details