An experimental Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) tool has been expanded significantly to cover 60% of the US population, up from 30% last year.
The FIM is an initiative of the National Weather Service (NWS), part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The tool provides near-real-time, high-resolution, street-level visualisations of flood waters to assist NWS forecasters in issuing flood watches and warnings.
FIM services are now available to twice as many NWS weather forecast offices as before.
“Flooding is the most frequent severe weather-related threat, and our costliest natural disaster,” said David Vallee, director, Service Innovation and Partnership Division, NOAA’s National Water Center.
“Expanding our FIM availability has been a game-changer in providing actionable, real-time information to emergency and water resource managers, and will expand the delivery of impact-based decision support services to our core partners who work to keep Americans safe and informed.”
FIM helps provide approximate spatial estimates of land area that is covered in water, based on modelled forecast river flows and current conditions.
FIM services were launched in 2023 and covered 10% of the US population, expanding in 2024 to 30%.
It is expected that in 2026, FIM will be fully deployed nationwide with coverage for 177,000 river kilometres near and downstream of NWS RFC forecast point locations.
It will also be available for more than 5.8 million river kilometres covered by US National Water Model forecasts.
