Using Radar Rainfall to Support Water Management in Florida

Accurate rainfall information across a wide range of space and time scales is needed to support water management decisions in Florida. The Florida Water Management Districts are regional governmental agencies with water quality, flood control, water supply and environmental restoration responsibilities. Statewide rainfall at high resolution is produced through a combination of rain gauge networks operated by the Districts, and radar data collected by the US National Weather Service from the NEXRAD (WSR-88D) radar network. The system used to produce rainfall estimates statewide consists of 531 gauges and eight NEXRAD radars. Radar rainfall captures the spatial variability of rainfall and provides rainfall estimates between rain gauges, helping to better characterize basin-wide rainfall amounts and to manage water in Florida. The RainVieux system implemented for the five Districts supports the quality control and bias correction of rainfall data derived from gauges and radar for Near Real Time, End of Day, and End of Month reporting intervals at 2×2 km and 15-minute resolution.