HydroForecast Newsletter: August 2025

As freshet winds down, we’ve been reflecting on our forecast performance and evaluations of the new HydroForecast Seasonal. This month, we’re excited to introduce our new model improvements, share fresh educational resources, and highlight security best practices to help keep your data safe.

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Upcoming webinar on Seasonal-3

Seasonal forecasts for confident risk management

How can seasonal forecasts support better water management decisions? Join our team on August 26 for a discussion on risk, uncertainty, and how to move from reactive to resilient with seasonal forecasts. 

Can't make the live event? Register anyway, and we'll send you the recording!

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The latest news & resources

USBR and HydroForecast: Pioneering AI in water management

We’re proud to announce a new collaboration with the Bureau of Reclamation focused on how AI-powered forecasting can enhance operations for hydropower and water management across the West.

Visualizing uncertainty in hydrographs

Understanding forecast uncertainty is key to making better decisions. We recently shared how HydroForecast represents uncertainty—and how to interpret and apply that information.

Customer voices: How HydroForecast helps make key decisions

The HydroForecast team is dedicated to ensuring customers have the support and tools available to make critical operational decisions. Here’s what a few customers have shared lately.

• “The HydroForecast team provides excellent customer service, especially with our very challenging region for modeling in Iceland. They have a truly talented and responsive team.” - Hörður Bragi Helgason, Landsvirkjun
• "Snowmelt season is critical for New Brunswick Power's hydroelectric operations. HydroForecast has been helpful monitoring freshet closely this season. The forecast performance is strong and we have been utilizing it daily for hydro optimization to stay prepared for changes in water supply and mitigate risks." - Chris Carson, Director of Operations

Industry insights from NHA

Conor Walsh, Account Executive, recently attended the National Hydropower Association (NHA) NE Regional meeting in Massachusetts. Check out his post on LinkedIn for key takeaways around collaboration, challenges & climate resilience.

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Behind the scenes with HydroForecast

Preview of model performance improvements with Seasonal-3

Early evaluations show that Seasonal-3 delivers stronger performance than the previous seasonal model across the forecast horizon for a typical site. The chart below uses the median across sites to provide a stable view that’s not skewed by outliers, with results shown for two metrics: MAPE (lower is better, though it can overweight low-flow periods) and NSE (higher is better).
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Seasonal-3 blends GEFS data for the first 35 days with ERA5-Land historical weather analogs beyond that, combining short-term responsiveness with long-term consistency.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Adding MFA to your account is an important extra layer of security that requires both your password and a code from your phone when logging in. It's easy to set up and provides protection. Learn more about our security practices.

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