TULSA, Okla. — Most Tulsans vividly remember when the Arkansas River flooded in 2019 and some may recall the flood of 1986.
Now, new advancements are being made which could be the difference between life or death. There's a new experimental tool to show you where flood waters are and if it's coming up your street or even into your house.
This is just one new initiative from the the National Water Prediction Service or NWPS designed to improve their forecasts and hydrology graphics.
"So you can see over the city streets or is it getting close to my house, and it will help emergency managers to plan and prepare for what may be coming in closing roads or evacuating people. And along with the public, they can see what they may need to move or if they need to evacuate," says Janet Salazar, National Weather Service Hydrologist in Wichita.
Another advancement is the NWPS implementing a 30-day outlook instead of their current 7-day forecast.
"Let's say an emergency manager was off that week and couldn't See what happened, what impacted how high that river got up into the crest you can now go back 30 days to see what happened," says Salazar.
The overall mapping system will be more user-friendly so, viewing it on your phone will be much easier.
"Taking advantage of the new web technologies that are out there and we have so many different layers that you can click on and off and key functions you can do. Just a lot of improved graphics," says Salazar.
The NWPS is asking for feedback before launching the new products in the spring. Here's the link for feedback: https://www.weather.gov/owp/operations
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