Category Archives: Research
Life on the edge of extreme natural hazards in remote northern Europe
As previously reported, the NERC-funded EMERGE Project has brought together scientists, researchers and early warning specialists from across Iceland, Norway and Scotland including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Following successful exploratory workshops in Oslo (May 2022) and Glasgow (March 2023), … Continue reading
Surface water flood forecasting: where next?
In August this year, SEPA published its new Flood Warning Development Framework. The framework defines the direction of travel for flood forecasting and warning services in Scotland with the aims to maintain and improve existing, and deliver new, operational flood … Continue reading
Exploring an impact-based approach to flood forecasting
As we’ve previously reported on here, many parts of the North and West Highlands of Scotland can be spared major flooding impacts even when significant rainfall (100 to 200 mm) can fall. In October 2018, although the town of Oban … Continue reading
Operational Forecasting Across the Globe: Sharing Science at EGU20
For several years the ‘operational forecasting and warning systems‘ PICO session has been a popular feature of the EGU hydrological sciences program. However, with restrictions on travel and meetings in place due to Covid-19, the whole of the 2020 Assembly … Continue reading
Royal Meteorology Society Award for the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service
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 … Continue reading
RAINS: Radar Applications in Northern Scotland
The past two months have brought significant rainfall across much of Scotland resulting in some severe disruption due to the impacts of flooding. Impacts have been seen in early December with Storm Desmond, through to Storm Frank which brought major … Continue reading
The European Flood Awareness System – 2015 annual meeting
Last month I attended the 10th annual partners meeting of the European Flood Awareness System, of which the forecasting service is a member. EFAS provides forecasts across Europe, using a gridded LISFLOOD model fed by deterministic and probabilistic rainfall forecasts from ECMWF. Alerts … Continue reading
Natural hazards: prediction and early warning on various scales
The 2015 General Assembly of the European Geoscience Union provided an opportunity to share challenges and innovation in the prediction and early warning of natural hazards. Although flooding was a key topic area, other hazards featured which all have synergies across the … Continue reading
Game over?
Article by Peter Buchanan, Met Office On Tuesday 15 July 2014, the Met Office implemented ‘ENDGame’ physics into the dynamical core of its global atmospheric forecast model. This was the culmination of many years of research and development and two … Continue reading
#FRMis10: Future flood risk management strategies
When the inaugural SNIFFER Flood Risk Management conference was convened in 2005 many of the current approaches to flood risk management were very much in their infancy – if at all conceived. 10 years on and the ‘FRMis10’ conference agenda– … Continue reading
Scottish Flood Forecasting Service 