Scientists from Met Office and SEPA working within the forecasting service have been recognised at the Royal Meteorological Society Awards for their work on the ‘Surface Water Flood forecasting in Urban Communities’ project. They, along with their colleagues from The James Hutton Institute, CEH Wallingford and CPAESS – UCAR, USA, received the Innovation Award which is based around innovation in meteorology, with a particular focus on business and/or public impact. It recognises people, projects or programmes within the academic, scientific or business communities who have made significant contributions to educating, informing or motivating organisations in their response to meteorological challenges. The full list of award winners can be seen here.

Example output from the surface water impact model for Glasgow

We reported on the project in a number of blog posts around the time of the initial project in 2014. A probabilistic surface water impact forecasting tool was developed for central Glasgow and used operationally during that summer’s Commonwealth Games. The model is still in use by the forecasting service, and the principles behind it have since been applied elsewhere in the UK.