Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service

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Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service RSS Feeds
- EMAIL Notification and More By Laurie G. Hogan,
NWS Eastern Region, Hydrologic Services Division
Main Page http//www.weather.gov/ahps/rss/

• What is RSS?
• RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
• Easy way to get important information.
• Information delivered directly to a feed.
• Does not need to clutter your email inbox can
  send to a folder.
• Just browse websites once to get information.
• Written in the Internet coding language known as
  XML (eXtensible Markup Language).
• AHPS RSS History Lesson 101
• National Weather Service customers said.
• Perhaps an automated email system for flooding
  hazards could be available at a nominal cost.
• Is it possible to setup in my email
  notifications for the Turtle River? We go into a
  flooding procedure at various stages of the
  watch/warning system.
• Do you offer an email or cell phone
  notification when the James River in Richmond
  will reach flood stage?

Example Alert RSS Feed for TACN4
AHPS RSS Feeds based on algorithms developed by
the Delaware River Basin Commission for its
Automated Email Flood Warning System.

• AHPS RSS users can select three feed options
• Observations
• Forecasts
• Alerts
• AHPS RSS users can select geographic areas
• Entire state (will include neighboring states
  gauges)
• Listing for individual counties by river
  alphabetically
• Individual gauge locations

• How do we build the AHPS RSS feeds?
• 23 WFOs generate the xml data
• Xml files are rsync to ER web farm
• Information collected from AHPS CMS
• RSS Algorithms process information
• Check if location is set to Out of Service in
  AHPS CMS
• Check if location is a forecast point
• Check if location data observation data are new
• Check if forecast data are older than 24 hours
• Check if alert message should be generated based
  on observed and forecast data
• Etc.

The Short List of RSS Readers/Tools (Or search
for RSS Readers in any Internet search engine)
Special thanks to John Bollinger and Orion
Network Solutions, Inc. for their outstanding
efforts in working with ER HSD on this project.

• Email Applications
• Thunderbird
• Microsoft Outlook 2007
• Browsers
• Internet Explorer 7
• Firefox Sage
• Opera
• Subscribe to a RSS Feed Service
• Squeet
• Feedblitz

AHPS RSS Feeds utilizes the AHPS XML files
developed by Mark Fenbers/OHRFC. RSS Feeds can be
selected via RSS tag below every hydrograph on
the left hand side.
Any questions laurie.hogan_at_noaa.gov Phone
631-244-0114