A unified flash flood database across the United States

Abstract

This article describes the data sources and processing steps to create a unified database of flash-flood observations across the United States that is now available to the community at www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects /flash/database.php. The database comprises streamflow observations maintained by the USGS, storm reports collected by the NWS from trained personnel, and public survey responses to a questionnaire developed for the SHAVE experiment. We have rigorously postprocessed all datasets for consistency in terms of data formats, time formats, geographic projection, and units. The database will be updated once per year in order to include recent USGS streamflow data, storm reports from the NWS, and SHAVE. © 2013 American Meteorological Societyis.