Heavy to excessive rainfall may lead to flooding today over southwest Pennsylvania into northern West Virginia, and western Maryland. Severe thunderstorms are possible this afternoon and evening in the Mid-South and across Eastern North Carolina. An extended period of hot weather is forecast for parts of coastal southern California including Los Angeles from today through Thursday. Read More >
The objectives of the National Weather Service Hydrology Program are to:
As a result, the country was divided into 8 hydrologic districts during the 1940s. In 1946, the first River Forecast Centers were created for these districts, which would eventually expand to 13.
The authority of the NWS to make river forecasts is documented in the Department of Commerce Organization Order 10-15. The statutes for the criminal code (15 U.S.C. 313, June 25, 1948) specified that the (then) Weather Bureau "/gjt.shall have charge of forecasting the weather, the issue of storm warnings, and the display of weather and flood [warnings]/gjt."