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The following is a description of the latest operational release of EFAS v4.5. For v5.2, which was launched on 13 August 2024. For an overview of other EFAS releases, please see: EFAS versioning system. 

Summary

EFAS v4v5.5 2 introduces several minor changes to the system, as well as some general bug fixes. Here is a summary of the main changes: 

• Post-processing updates: 

• • Increase temporal resolution of bias-adjusted method (real-time hydrograph) from 24 hours to 6 hours.
  • Recalibration of all 1608 station models using the most up-to-date data available (1420 at 6-hourly, 188 at daily).
  • River discharge observations are now obtained from a new hydrological database set up by EFAS Hydrological Data Collection Centre (HYDRO)
  • Detailed documentation on the post-processing method and post-processing product (Real-time hydrograph) can be found on the dedicated wiki pages, following the release.

• Introduction of TAMIR layers:

  • Four new hourly updated flash flood products developed during the TAMIR project are now available:

    • Flash flood impact forecasts summarised at the catchment level for four lead time aggregation windows: 0-6h, 07-24h, 25 - 48h, and 49 - 120h

    • An animated layer showing flash flood impact forecasts over the river network at each timestep for lead times from 0-120h

    • Accumulated precipitation estimates for the past 24h (updated twice per day)

    • An animated layer of the 80th percentile of ensemble rainfall forecasted at each timestep for lead times from 0-120h

  • Detailed documentation on the TAMIR layers can be found on the dedicated TAMIR wiki pages, following the release. 

Technical details

including:

• Revised Notification criteria for Formal and Informal notifications: 
  
  • Optimised criteria for the issue of Formal and Informal notifications are based on a new methodology for the computation of the total probability of exceedance of the 5 yr RP threshold of the grand ensemble encompassing all Numerical Weather Predictions.
    
  • Improved definition of the area of validity of Formal and Informal notifications.
  • Revised layers in the EFAS Map Viewer: 
    • (a)  5-year exceedance < 48 h and 5-year exceedance > 48 h replace the layers Flood Probability < 48 h and Flood Probability > 48 h, respectively;
    • (b) Flood probability layer replaces the former Flood probability persistence layer; 
    • (c) Reporting Points pop-up window has been updated to show total probability and grand ensemble.
  • Improved EFAS notifications email to include a link to a preview feature in the Notifications Archive.

• Stations metadata have been updated to better align them with the hydrological data collected by EHDCC.
• Updated flood protection levels layer using new information in EU member states
• Updated Major Rivers layer derived from 4 different datasets: FAO AQUASTAT, EU hydro, Natural Earth, and GRDC; improved visualisation of river network and river names.
  
• Updated documentation on FTP Access

This upgrade of EFAS has no impact on the EFAS modelling results.

Technical details