Forecasting System Provides Flood Warnings To Vulnerable Residents Of Bangladesh

The summer of 2004, the forecasting system developed by NCAR and Georgia Tech scientists generated these 10-day forecasts showing that the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh would likely exceed critical flood level (the horizontal dotted line) on two occasions in July. At the time, the forecasts were not fully integrated into Bangladeshi warning systems, and approximately 500 people in Bangladesh and India died in the floods. This summer, for the first time, the forecasts are being distributed directly to more than 100,000 people living in flood-prone areas along the Brahmaputra and Ganges rivers. Illustration by Thomas Hopson, UCAR.

by Staff Writers
Boulder CO (SPX) Aug 03, 2007
As catastrophic floods worsen in Bangladesh, a pilot forecasting program is being used to warn thousands of residents in selected flood-prone regions. The forecasting system was designed by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Georgia Institute of Technology. Bangladesh is one of the world's most vulnerable regions to floods. Rising waters in recent days have left dozens of people dead and several million marooned or displaced, with the toll likely to mount.

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