Forecast Notifications and Alerts

HydroForecast Forecast Notifications and Alerts help you stay ahead of critical conditions by sending timely, automated emails about forecasts on your sites. To manage your preferences, click on the icon in the top right corner of the HydroForecast dashboard. Then navigate to “Settings” and “Notifications.”

Daily forecasts in your inbox

To enroll in daily forecast digest emails per site, toggle the options for issue times 0Z and 12Z forecasts. Once toggled on, you will receive daily emails displaying the predicted mean flow per day for the 10-day horizon at your selected initialization time.

Click on the issue time within the email to access a direct link to the latest forecast on the dashboard.

Please note, daily emails are for the 0z and 12z initialization times. HydroForecast short term is updated or “re issued” every two hours in between these initialization periods. If you are interested in a specific issue time, we recommend using the dashboard or our API. Please see our support page on When Forecast are Issued and reach out to team@hydroforecast.com for more info or with any questions.

Forecast Alerts

HydroForecast offers three types of forecast alerts - each designed to support proactive decision-making. When conditions are met, you’ll receive an email alert when the event begins, and another when it ends.

Threshold Alerts

This alert notifies you when a short-term, seasonal, or weather forecast variable crosses a specific value you’ve set. These alerts are highly flexible, allowing you to choose the variable, direction, and threshold that matter most to your operations.

To configure a threshold alert:

  • Click “Create New Alert” in the “Forecast Alerts” section
  • Choose “Threshold” in the “Set Up Alert” menu
  • Select a source (e.g. HydroForecast Short-term, or a weather input like temperature or precipitation)
  • Choose a column (e.g. mean flow or a flow quantile for HydroForecast; temperature or precipitation for weather)
  • Select a direction: above or below
  • Enter the threshold value
  • Choose the project and site(s) you’d like to enroll

Please note that weather inputs only return point values at the specific forecast site. For example, a precipitation alert will only consider precipitation estimates at the specific forecast site rather than an average over a basin.

Once a threshold is set, you will receive an email if a forecast is predicted to exceed the set threshold. Threshold events notify only once when a threshold is first triggered. Subsequent forecasts will not notify again until the event is resolved and the threshold is no longer exceeded. This can happen in two ways:

  • The event ends and the period of time where the forecast crossed the set threshold has passed
  • The forecast adjusts to new data and is no longer expected to exceed the threshold

Long-term average comparison alerts

This alert notifies you when flow is forecasted to cross a percentage threshold relative to the long-term average (LTA) for a site. It’s available for both short-term and seasonal forecasts. These alerts are especially useful for spotting unseasonably high or low flows—whether you're watching for drought risk, early runoff, or out-of-pattern events.

To configure a Long-term average comparison alert:

  • Click “Create New Alert” in the “Forecast Alerts” section
  • Choose “Long-term average comparison” in the “Set Up Alert” menu
  • Select a source - whether you’d like to be notified about comparison to short-term or seasonal flow forecasts
  • Column defaults to mean flow
  • Choose a direction: above or below
  • Set a percentage of LTA (e.g. 150% = much higher than normal; 50% = unusually dry)
  • Choose the project and site(s) you’d like to enroll

Once a threshold is set, you will receive an email if a forecast is predicted to exceed the set threshold within the next 4 days. Threshold events notify only once when a threshold is first triggered. Subsequent forecasts will not notify again until the event is resolved and the threshold is no longer exceeded. In order for LTA alert to notify, the daily mean forecast must exceed the threshold. This can happen in two ways:

  • The event ends and the period of time where the forecast crossed the set threshold has passed
  • The forecast adjusts to new data and is no longer expected to exceed the threshold

Upcoming Event alert

This alert notifies you when short-term streamflow is forecasted to rise sharply in the coming days. It’s designed to give early warning ahead of rapid snowmelt, storms, or other sudden events.

To configure an upcoming event alert:

  • Click “Create New Alert” in the “Forecast Alerts” section
  • Choose “Upcoming Event”  in the “Set Up Alert” menu
  • Available for short-term flow forecasts only
  • You’ll be notified if streamflow is expected to double within the next four days as long as the forecast is at least 50% of LTA. 
  • Note that sensitivity and timing are currently not configurable.

When conditions are met for any of the forecast alerts, you’ll receive an email with details so you can react swiftly.

Viewing and managing forecast alerts

All users who create forecast alerts will be able to view, edit, or delete their own alerts from the Notifications page. 

When setting up an alert, users can now enroll multiple sites at once, streamlining setup for teams managing large geographies or portfolios.

Admin users will also be able to see alerts created by others in their organization, though they will not be able to modify alerts they didn’t create. This helps promote coordination across teams while preserving individual control over alert preferences.