When forecasts are issued and available

HydroForecast Short-term uses the 00 and 12 UTC (GMT) weather forecasts, which take a number of hours to process and become available. Here’s how that plays out for the HydroForecast issue and available times:

“Morning” forecast:

Start of forecast: 00 UTC aka 16:00 PST/19:00 EST of the day before

First available: 08 UTC aka midnight PST/03:00 EST

“Afternoon” forecast:

Start of forecast: 12 UTC aka 04:00 PST/07:00 EST

First available: 20 UTC aka noon PST/15:00 EST

We update the short-term models every two hours, assimilating to the latest inflow and stream gauge observations. 

HydroForecast Seasonal forecasts are issued once per day, available at 01 UTC aka 17:00 PST/20:00 EST