Met office services

We currently procure our meteorological and coastal forecasting data from the UK Met Office both directly (via this contract) or through other UK partnerships (for example the UK Coastal Flood Forecasting partnership).

The use of Met office meteorological and coastal forecasting data is part of a wider long-term working relationship with the Met Office whereby we use this data in conjunction with “added value” consultancy services delivered by the Flood Forecasting Centre (procured under separate arrangements) and the Met Office to provide NRW with a complete integrated assessment of the meteorological forecast and so enable us to determine the resulting flood risk for Wales

Flood Data Feeds & 24/7 Service Desk Support

The provision of near real time observational and forecast data feeds, supporting 24/7 helpdesk support. The real time data feeds are taken directly into our operational FEWS Wales flood forecasting system for making forecasts of river and coastal flooding across Wales. This data includes rainfall (meteorological forecast and weather radar observations), forecast wind, astronomic tide, forecast storm surge and forecast waves. The contract also provisions for 24/7 helpdesk support given the business-critical nature of these near real time data services to NRW.

Water Resources management and reporting data (MORECS Data and Monthly Areal Rainfall Datasets)

The provision of weekly and monthly MORECS data (including soil moisture and evaporation data) and daily and monthly NCIC areal rainfall data used for NRW water resources situation reporting and assessments across Wales.

Rain gauge network inspection & data quality control

This includes:

Routine physical site audits by a Met Office inspector to ensure our rain gauge sites comply with Met Office and World Meteorological Office (WMO) standards for the measurement of precipitation. This is an unaccompanied inspection on a three-year cycle to observer manual gauges and an accompanied inspection on a 6 year cycle, on a risk-based approach, to automatic gauges

Quality assurance of measured precipitation data to ensure compliance with national standards and in statistical compliance with geographically similar rain gauges

Return of the quality assured rain gauge data to NRW for uploading to our WISKI7 hydrometric archive for use by NRW hydrologist and water resource specialists.