Developing Flash Flood Forecasting Tools for the US and the World
The presentation will provide an overview of the research and development for the FLASH system and its application in NOAA’s National Weather Service warning operations, and a summary of an ongoing project funded by NASA to develop a flash flood forecasting system in West Africa.

Professor Humberto Vergara
Professor Humberto Vergara is a research engineer at IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering of The University of Iowa with expertise in hydrologic modeling with a focus on river-flood and flash-flood forecasting. As a Research Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO), Dr. Vergara was the lead software architect in the design and development of the Flooded Locations and Simulated Hydrographs project (FLASH), a cyberinfrastructure-based forecasting system for flash flood guidance, which he has helped transition to daily operational use at the National Weather Service (NWS). He currently leads the hydrologic modeling development for a flash flood forecasting system for the West Africa region, and conducts research to understand flash flood predictability globally.