NWDTW 2026

This session will highlight some general best practices when flagging, surveying, and computing indirect measurements of peak discharge, as well as identifying some common (and uncommon) mistakes.

Hurricane Helene severely impacted the Asheville Field Area. This presentation looks at impacts from the storm as well as recovery efforts that were undertaken by Asheville Field Office staff as well as assistance from many outside sources. This (hopefully) once in a lifetime storm event led to significant damage and loss of data. Significant effort was put into restoring the network, assigning peak gage heights, and conducting indirect measurements to compute discharge data through the event.

Submersible pressure transducers such as Onset HOBO and Van Essen Diver data loggers can provide valuable stage data when compensated with barometric pressure readings. However, when submersible transducers are deployed in the air, they often prove unreliable as verification for stage records within set uncertainty limits. This unreliability comes from overlapping uncertainties of air pressure readings made by both the absolute and barometric pressure sensors. This talk proposes implementing a new computational method and tool during the compensation process involving the average misalignment between air readings made by both pressure sensors and adjusting all readings within a file by that misalignment. Preliminary results have been promising with most of the affected data aligning closer to verification stage records. This method will enable air-deployment of submersible pressure transducers to be more reliable as a method for peak-stage verification as well as increase the accuracy of air-deployed submersible pressure transducers without secondary data sources, such as tidal records and temporary gage deployments. To streamline the processing of data collected by submersible pressure transducers, we have developed a shiny app that implements this proposed new method automatically when processing air deployments in addition to allowing the processing of submersible pressure transducers via existing methods. This application is intended to produce more accurate data records by using a consistent compensation method between different sensor models while reducing the workload of the user processing the data.

Since 2021, the USGS Real-time Flood Impact Map has evolved through the Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) into an increasingly operational capability that delivers actionable flood impact intelligence.

This hands-on workshop will train participants to enter and document flood impacts within the system. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own flood impact scenarios; alternatively, examples may be selected from National Weather Service flood impact statements. These scenarios will be used for guided, step-by-step instruction on data entry, standards, and quality assurance.

The session will include: (1) an overview of the Real-time Flood Impact Map, (2) criteria for defining and selecting flood impacts, (3) hands-on data entry exercises, and (4) best practices for ensuring consistency and accuracy. The map currently includes more than 6,000 documented flood impacts nationwide and continues to expand in operational use.

Participants will leave prepared to independently contribute high-quality flood impact data and support broader adoption across cooperators and stakeholders.