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Full catalog/NWM PDS
NWM PDS·dataset

US rivers and streamflow forecast, next 18 hours (NOAA)

NOAA National Water Model Short-Range Forecast
atmosphere NOAA NOAA active
In plain English

What it measures. This shows how much water is flowing in rivers and streams across the lower 48 states, along with snowpack, soil moisture, and how much water is evaporating from the land.

How it's made. NOAA's National Water Model simulates the whole country's water cycle hour by hour, fed by short-term weather forecasts from the HRRR and RAP models.

How & where you'd use it. Flood forecasters, reservoir operators, farmers, and barge operators use it to plan for too much or too little water in the days ahead.

What's measured

aws-pdsagricultureweatherclimateenvironmentaldisaster responsetransportation

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span— → ongoing

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The National Water Model (NWM) is a water resources model that simulates and forecasts water budget variables, including snowpack, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and streamflow, over the entire continental United States (CONUS). The model, launched in August 2016, is designed to improve the ability of NOAA to meet the needs of its stakeholders (forecasters, emergency managers, reservoir operators, first responders, recreationists, farmers, barge operators, and ecosystem and floodplain managers) by providing expanded accuracy, detail, and frequency of water information. It is operated by NOAA’s Office of Water Prediction. This bucket contains a four-week rollover of the Short Range Forecast model output and the corresponding forcing data for the model. The model is forced with meteorological data from the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) and the Rapid Refresh (RAP) models. The Short Range Forecast configuration cycles hourly and produces hourly deterministic forecasts of streamflow and hydrologic states out to 18 hours.

Get the data

noaa_access.py
# NOAA Open Data on AWS — public S3, no login
import s3fs

fs = s3fs.S3FileSystem(anon=True)
# find this dataset's bucket in the docs link in the sidebar, then:
# files = fs.ls("noaa-<bucket>/...")
# open NetCDF/GRIB with xarray, COGs with rioxarray
NOAA Open Data is on public AWS S3 — no login at all (anonymous access).