2. Agenda Introduction –What is FFMP? Foundation –Basic Components and Localization Common Problems –Often seen and easily fixed Troubleshooting Resources –DAB Web Pages

3. Introduction FFMP is a Decision Assistance tool, intended to help the forecaster decide when to issue a flash flood warning and when not to. It does this by using radar and topographic data to calculate precipitation accumulation in hydrologic water basins over various time periods and compare to the suggested Flash Flood Guidance (FFG), provided by River Forecast Centers (RFCs). Because the NWS’s main mission is to save lives and property, and the primary way to do this is via issued warnings, FFMP’s importance is relatively high!

4. FFMP Basin Trend Graph D2D Image Basin Table Images from a WFO-created Presentation

5. Foundation Data Requirements –Radar: DHR product for each applicable radar –Basin shapefile for each applicable radar –Radar Bin shapefile for each applicable radar Note: Shapefiles can potentially be customized –Flash Flood Guidance (FFG) issued by the RFCs. Note: FFMP will work without FFG! Various AWIPS utilities –notificationServer –Localization output WWA County GELT

6. Foundation Basin Shapefile –~2-20 mi 2 –~11K-15K basins under one radar –Often trimmed to ~6K-9K per CWA

7. Foundation: Localization FFMP Localization (mainScript.csh -scan) –Uses Basin Shapefile, bin shapefile, and WWA County GELT to construct the FFMP Lookups, a suite of text files used by both FFMP Processor and FFMP Display. –Lookups tell FFMP: Which radar bins each small basin contains. Which small basins each county contains. Which RFC’s are in the coverage area. –FFMP will not work if there is a problem with these lookups! –Other FFMP Localization products used by Display: Small Basin stream map (bcd file) Small Basin GELT –Related Localization dependencies: -radar switch: creates keys. FFMP does not need this switch after the initial installation, so it is unlikely that this localization switch would ever need to be run in order to solve an FFMP problem. -tables and –auxFiles switches. These switches were used by FFMP several years ago, but now there are no FFMP-related actions in them, so they should not be run to solve FFMP problems. -wwa switch. Provides the WWA GELT

8. Foundation: Localization Dependencies Delivered: Basin Shapefiles: /awips/fxa/data/localization/nationalData/ @@@@_aggr_basins.* Bin Shapefiles: /awips/fxa/data/localization/nationalData/@@@@_bins.* From –wwa localization: WWA County GELT: /awips/fxa/data/localizationDataSets/XXX/wwa_counties.* Output: Small Basin map: /awips/fxa/data/localizationDataSets/XXX/ @@@@_aggr_basins.bcd FFMP Small Basin GELT: /awips/fxa/data/localizationDataSets/XXX/ @@@@_aggr_basins800wfo.* FFMP lookups: /data/fxa/radar/@@@@/ffmp/lookupFiles/ –basinList.dat –basinLayer*.dat –basinToCounty.dat –baisnToGELTidx.dat –binToBasin.dat –gridToBasin.dat –nearbyRFCs.dat –radarHrapLoc.txt –scanGridToBasin.dat –binlessBasin.dat NOTE: This Lookup list Will change In OB5.

9. Foundation: Basic Components Processor –Creates data Display –Displays data as an image (map) –Displays data in a table –Displays data in a time trend FFTI –The Monitor

10. Foundation: Basic Components Processor Runs on AS1 (PX1) Ingests Lookups from Localization Ingests radar data (DHR product) Ingests FFG Writes output for each radar volume scan –/data/fxa/radar/@@@@/ffmp/yyyymmdd_hhmm* –/data/fxa/radar/@@@@/ffmp/accumulation*

11. Foundation: Basic Components Display D2D Image: displays Counties or Basins (or upcoming Layers) Basin Table: GUI presenting data in tabular form Basin Trend: launched form Basin Table or D2D Image (if made active)

12. County Precipitation Accumulation Display FFMP 1.0 Hour Basin Avg Precip Images from a WFO-created Presentation Left Click on County Name To zoom in

13. Basin Precipitation Accumulation Display Only displays those basins within the county selected. FFMP 1.0 Hour Basin Avg Precip Left Click to Zoom out. Right Click to display the Basin Trend. Left Click to Zoom in more.

14. Basin Trend Graph Where the accumulation (colored area) is above and left of the FFG (purple line) there is a threat of flash flooding, especially if the Rate (blue line) is 2 inches or greater and not decreasing. Instantaneous Rate Accumulation Flash Flood Guidance Image from a WFO-created Presentation

15. Foundation: Basic Components Flash Flood Threat Indicator (FFTI) Actually contained in the Processor. Represented by the “FF” button on the D2D. Provides GUI to define settings. –Note: FFG Expiration definition is here.

16. Common Problems Check the Basics –Is the DHR on the RPS list? We suggest it be on all lists. –Do the Basin Shapefiles exist? Have they been recently customized? (Frequent problems with customization lead to the customization being dropped.) –Does the Basin GELT exist? If not, run a –scan localization. See next slide. –Are the localization Lookups updated? If not, run a –scan localization. See next slide for time dependencies. –Has the FFMPprocessor been restarted since the last localization? See next slide for time dependencies. –Does the user have an appropriate time duration defined in the Basin Table? If the FFMPprocessor has been processing data for only 30 minutes, there will not be enough data for time durations greater than 30 minutes. –Is there old data hanging around (more than a day or two old)? If so, remove the data files files. –Is the FFG expiration too low? If so, raise it to 16-18 hours in the FFTI GUI. Note: This information can be found on the FFMP web page.

17. Common Problems Note: This information can be found on the FFMP web page. Many FFMP problems relate directly to the “time” dependency of various localization files and process start times. Here are some rules to follow when evaluating the “Basics”: The Small Basin GELT files should always be newer than the Basin Shapefiles. If not, then, using the fxa account : –Localize for –scan on each workstation. –Remove the 200* and accumulation* files from /data/fxa/radar/@@@@/ffmp –Run stopFFMPprocessor & startFFMPprocessor on as1(px1) The FFMP Lookup Files should always be newer than the Small Basin GELT files. If not, then, using the fxa account : –Run localizeForFFMP on one workstation. (A full –scan localization is not needed.) –Remove the 200* and accumulation* files from /data/fxa/radar/@@@@/ffmp. –Run stopFFMPprocessor & startFFMPprocessor on as1(px1) The FFMPprocessor start time should always be newer than the FFMP Lookup Files. If not, then, using the fxa account : –Remove the 200* and accumulation* files from /data/fxa/radar/@@@@/ffmp –Run stopFFMPprocessor & startFFMPprocessor on as1(px1)

18. Common Problems FFMP doesn’t work. –Check Basics. FFMP used to work, but now it doesn’t. –Check Basics. I am not seeing anything in FFMP (or “n/a”s or “xxxx”s). –Check the user-selected Duration, ensure that it is greater than the amount of time FFMP Processor has been processing. FFG is coming in but FFMP does not seem to see it. –Check the FFG expiration in the FFTI. It should be greater than 12 hours. We suggest 16 to 18 hours. –FFMP’s FFG will not update if there is no precipitation either. Note: This information can be found on the FFMP web page.

19. Troubleshooting Resources Data Monitor System (DMS) –Launched from web browser. –Tells you if the DHR is in the RPS list or not. –Tells you if the FFG is being ingested properly. http://as1f/infoPages/FFMP_DMS.htmlhttp://as1f/infoPages/FFMP_DMS.html (eventually px1f) Note: the WFOs should have a bookmark.

20. Troubleshooting Resources FFMP Web Page http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/ffmp –Plenty of GREAT information. –Link to Troubleshooting Tips (Tips) page, which continually evolves. Link to the Basics from the Tips page. Link to the Field Report Application from the Tips page. –Link to full, downloadable User’s Guides (pdf). –Links to lists of new and planned functionality. –Link to a ‘How-To’ tutorial.

21. Troubleshooting Resources Field Report Application (FRA) http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/fieldreport –Contains info for the DAB (FFMP, SCAN, LSR, WWA, SAFESEAS) and other MDL branches (IFPS, GFE, NDFD, HWR, Climate, Vfcn, LAMP). –Can search according to: Trouble Ticket (TT) - if exists DR - if exists problem title WFO Root Cause Priority Dates State (ie: closed, open) –Note: The FRA is not intended to be used as a TT tracker, though some have used it in this manner. It is intended to aid our customer support and provide additional resources to WFOs and NCF as well as provide feedback to ‘management’. It is also intended to reflect the developers perspective. If an item is closed, it means the developers are “done” with it.

22. FFMP