Synoptic Data

In the Upper Missouri River Basin, which includes sections of Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, one of the most important reservoirs is underneath your feet. Snowpack and soil moisture form enormous natural reservoirs whose water storage can be challenging to estimate. The accuracy of these estimates, however, are critical for drought and flood preparedness. Led by NOAA’s National

When it comes to managing water, there’s a “Goldilocks problem”: runoff frequently delivers far too much or far too little water to the landscape. In the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB), catastrophic floods and droughts between 2011 and 2021 highlighted the need for more and better water information to deliver earlier warnings and respond to extremes from both sides of the water supply spectrum