NWS's Flash Flood Warning and Disaster Preparedness Programs

Abstract

Flash floods have become the nation's number one stormy weather killer in the 1970s. Deaths from flash floods are now approaching 200 each year compared to an average of less than 70 per year during the preceding 30-year period. Losses from flash floods are now nearly 10 times what they were in the 1940s. To combat these escalating losses the National Weather Service (NWS) is expanding its efforts to improve forecasting and warning of flash floods and to improve the public's response to flash flood threats. This paper summarizes the present and planned NWS operational flash flood warning and disaster preparedness programs.