NOUS41 KWBC 262059
PNSWSH
Service Change
Notice 13-16
National Weather
Service Headquarters Washington DC
400 PM EST Tue
Feb 26 2013
To: Subscribers:
-Family of Services
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Managers Weather
Information Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS partners and NWS employees
From: Mary Mullusky
Chief, Hydrologic Services Branch
Subject: New Display of Automated Flood Warning
Systems (AFWS)
Web Pages Effective on or before March 31,
2013
On March 31,
2013, the NWS Automated Flood Warning System (AFWS)
Web Pages
currently displaying stream gage and precipitation will
be discontinued
http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/
On or before
March 31, 2013, this information will be integrated
into the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service
(AHPS) Website.
AFWS stream gage
information will be fully integrated with all
other AHPS stream gage observations and can be
accessed at
with capabilities to view the information at the
national, state,
Weather Forecast
Office (WFO), River Forecast Center or Water
Resources Region
scale. AFWS precipitation information
can be
accessed at
http://water.weather.gov/afws/
with capabilities to view at the national, state,
Weather
Forecast Office,
River Forecast Center or Water Resources Region
scale. Additionally, AFWS precipitation
information can be viewed
at the county scale by clicking on the state, Weather
Forecast
Office,
River Forecast Center or Water Resources Region view.
These changes are
being made in conjunction with infrastructure
modifications to increase the reliability and
sustainability of
NWS
Web-based hydrologic services.
The most significant change is
the separation of the display of AFWS stream
gage information
from the AFWS precipitation information at the
county scale. AFWS
stream gage information can be accessed through WFO
web pages
from the AHPS River and Lakes tab. Additionally,
AFWS stream gage
information can be accessed through Area Hydrographs or
the River
Observation Map
links located at the bottom of the AFWS
precipitation county view page.
On or before
March 31, 2013, Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
used for the NWS’s AFWS Hydrologic Services web
pages will be as
follows
National AFWS
Information Page -
old url: http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/
new url: http://water.weather.gov/afws/
WFO Scale AFWS
Pages -
old url: http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/
index.php?gtype=precip&wfo=yyy
new url:
http://water.weather.gov/afws/region.php?wfo=yyy
example:
http://water.weather.gov/afws/region.php?wfo=RLX
In the example
above, yyy is the NWS forecast office identifier.
County Scale AFWS
Pages -
old url: http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/
county.php?wfo=yyy&state=ww&county=zzz
new url: http://water.weather.gov/afws/
county.php?state=xx&county=zzz
example: http://water.weather.gov/afws/
county.php?state=WV&county=039
In the example
above, yyy is the NWS forecast office identifier,
xx is the two character state abbreviation, and
zzz is the
numeric three digit county ID which must be
zero-padded if
necessary. In
the old url, ww is a numeric two digit state ID.
AFWS Tabular Data
Pages, Precipitation:
old url: http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/
tabular_data_$nwsli_precip.html
new url: http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/
hydrograph_to_xml.php?gage=$nwsli&output=
tabular&fcst_type=precip
example: http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/
hydrograph_to_xml.php?gage=arfw2&output=
tabular&fcst_type=precip
In the example
above, yyy is the NWS forecast office identifier
and $nwsli is the NWS
location identifier of a specific
precipitation gage.
AFWS Tabular Data
Pages, Stage –
old url: http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/
tabular_data_$nwsli_stage.html
new url: http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/
hydrograph_to_xml.php?gage=$nwsli
&output=tabular
example: http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/
hydrograph_to_xml.php?gage=arfw2
&output=tabular
In the example
above, yyy is the NWS forecast office identifier
and $nwsli is the NWS
location identifier for a point along a
river or stream.
Other AFWS
information pages follow the pattern in the examples
above where the domain name immediately following
http:// is
replaced with the new domain name water.weather.gov.
old url: http://afws.erh.noaa.gov/afws/nationalother.php
new url: http://water.weather.gov/afws/nationalother.php
These URL changes
will not affect users who access NWS Web-based
hydrologic services through the tabs on the NWS main
page at
or the national AHPS page at
Users who access
the AFWS data either through the AHPS Hydrologic
Resources
Automated Flood Warning System link or other AHPS pages
through AFWS links will be automatically redirected
to the new
AFWS
URLs.
Users who
automatically interrogate the NWS Automated Flood
Warning System
Web Pages to obtain hydrologic data will need to
change the URL in their procedures as shown in the
examples above
to access the correct Web location.
The AFWS data on
this Website comes from external data partners.
Beginning July
2012, NWS alerted external data partners that as
of March 31, 2013, the NWS will require
quality-assured Automated
Local Evaluation
in Real Time (ALERT) messages from the below
named states be transmitted to the NWS in Standard
Hydrologic
Exchange Format
(SHEF). The impetus for this request was
to
increase the efficiency and extensibility of the NWS
AFWS. This
request will affect data from the following 12
states only:
Connecticut,
Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New
York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia,
and West Virginia.
This change will
better integrate the ALERT data into the AHPS
Web portal,
streamlining data flow and user access to related
information. After March 31, 2013, the NWS will no
longer be able
to ingest raw ALERT messages from the above
mentioned locations.
Unfortunately,
some partners will be unable to convert by the
March
31, 2013, deadline. This
will cause gaps in the data viewed
on the AHPS website which will be hosting the
AFWS information.
If you have
questions on your data provider’s status in
transitioning to the new transmission format and
collection
process, please contact your local Weather Forecast
Office for
information.
See SCN 12-25:
NWS to Establish New Methods to Collect Automated
Flood Warning
System Information by March 31, 2013
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notification/scn12-25afws.htm
for more
For further
information, please contact:
John Bradley
Office of
Climate, Water, and Weather Services
National Weather
Service
Donna Page
Office of
Hydrologic Development
National Weather
Service
National Service
Change Notices are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
$$