The following is a description of the latest operational release of EFAS (v5.6) was launched on 25 February 2025 (the first forecast showing the v5.6 products is 2026-02-25 12:00 UTC). For an overview of other EFAS releases, please see: EFAS versioning system.
Summary
EFAS v5.6 introduces several changes to the system, including:
New layout and updates to the functionalities of the EFAS-IS map viewer and website.
- Changes are reflected in the EFAS User Guide documentation.
To support the release, the EFAS Hydrological Forecast Centre - Computation (COMP) will host a dedicated webinar on 03 March at 14:00-15:00 CET to guide users through the new functionalities of EFAS-IS. To register to this webinar, please enter your details in the dedicated registration form.
- The Satellite Soil Moisture product (found under the Initial Conditions tab on EFAS-IS) was updated to H SAF 26, now at ~10 km resolution. Details are available on Initial Conditions Products Overview. For more information about HSAF, visit the H SAF products documentation.
- Cosmetic changes on EFAS-IS map viewer for Rainfall Animation products.
- Improved visualisation for forecast precipitation animated layers for the ensemble meteorological forcings. More details on the products are available in Meteorological Products Overview.
- Minor update to the title of the Discharge Hydrograph in the Reporting Points pop-up window. The new title is "Discharge hydrograph (IFS ENS)" to reflect the combined forecast ensembles as input. For a detailed description of information in the pop-up windows, see EFAS Reporting Points.
- Minor update to the EFAS Partners Regions layer on EFAS-IS. The existing layer has been updated and renamed to the 'EFAS Partner River Basins' layer, which now represents EFAS Partner regions and areas outside of the EFAS partner regions but within the same drainage basin (i.e. upstream or downstream of an EFAS partner). The changes are reflected in the Static Layers Overview documentation.
This upgrade of EFAS has no impact on the EFAS modelling results.
Technical details
| Pre-release date (available on stage platform) | 2026-01-27 |
|---|---|
| Release date | 2026-02-25 (12:00 UTC) |
| In test suite | n/a |
EFAS internal number | 20 |
| Archiving of data | ECFS, MARS, CDS |
| Reference climatology (for thresholds/ anomalies) | 1992-01-01 to 2022-12-31 |
| EFAS Historical | 1992-01-01 to near present |
| Reforecasts | tbc |
| Horizontal projection | EPSG4326 |
| Horizontal resolution | 0.01667 x 0.01667° |
| Temporal resolution | 6-hourly |