Explaining The Different Flood Watches And Warnings | WLUK - Fox 11

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ACCESSIBILITY

Explaining the different flood watches and warnings

by FOX 11 Weather

Thu, September 12, 2019 at 3:51 PMWLUK imageComment on this story0CommentShare storyShare

topics:

• Flash Flood Warning
• Flash Flood Watch
• Flood
• Flood Alert
• Flood Control
• Flood warning
• Hydrology
• Meteorology

(WLUK) -- Amid this week's heavy rains, you may have noticed the National Weather Service issued an areal flood warning.

No, it's not a misspelling of "aerial" (that would be a different kind of problem), "a real" (all the NWS alerts are real) or "area" (the noun form of areal).

An areal flood watch or warning is one of several types of flood-related alerts the NWS issues. Some of the differences between flood products are based more on the time frame of the flooding, and others are based more on the locations.

Flash flood warning

A flash flood warning is based more around timing of the flooding. If the flooding in question is expected to occur within the first few hours after a rain event, flash flood warnings or watches will be issued.

Flash flood watch

With our ground saturated and rivers already running high, it won’t take much rain to cause flooding to crop up yet again Thursday night, which is why flash flood watches are in effect. The National Weather Service is saying they expect whatever flooding does occur, to occur either before the rain ends for very shortly after it ends.

Areal flood watch/warning

An areal flood watch or warning is usually issued for flooding that’s expected to linger well after the rain has ended. Wednesday’s flood waters took several hours to recede after the end of the rain, which is why area flood warnings were issued rather than flash flood warnings as we moved into the evening.

And yes, areal is a word — it is the adjective form of the noun “area.” It means “of or pertaining to a certain area,” which in the case of an areal flood statement is the area for which it is issued.

River flood watch/warning

River flood warnings are based more on location, and in particular locations where there are river gauges present to monitor river levels. Whenever that particular part of a river is observed above flood stage or is forecast to go above flood stage, river flood statements will be put into effect for that specific area of the river. They can also be issued for rivers that don’t have flood gauges but are observed to be flowing over their banks.

Do you have flooding in your area? If you can safely take a photo or video, you may share it with us here:

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