About our services

The Flood Guidance Statement

Overview

The Flood Guidance Statement (FGS) is a 5-day risk-based product for England and Wales. It:

  • is produced by the Flood Forecasting Centre (FFC)

  • shows the forecast level of flood risk for the coming 5 days for surface water, river, groundwater and coastal flooding

  • uses a detailed risk matrix approach, based on a combination of likelihoods and impacts

  • forecasts at a local authority scale

  • provides a summary forecast for the 6 to 10 day period where necessary

Further information can be found in the Flood Guidance Statement user guide.

Rapid Flood Guidance service

On 14 May 2024 the FFC launch a trial Rapid Flood Guidance service.

This service will supplement the FGS. 

The trial will run until 30 September 2024.  

The Rapid Flood Guidance service:

  • will give short notice updates for England and Wales
  • is for responders  who need to make decisions at a timescale of 0 to 6 hours

More information is available in the Rapid Flood Guidance service user guide.

To receive the Rapid Flood Guidance, you will need to sign up through your Flood Guidance Statement account.

FGS users

The FGS provides a daily flood risk forecast to assist with strategic, tactical and operational planning decisions for:

Signing up for the FGS

You can sign up to receive the FGS:

The FGS is also:

FGS on Hazard Manager

Signing up for the FGS through Hazard Manager allows you to:

  • view the FGS clearly on computer, tablet or mobile

  • view county and risk areas maps interactively

  • use other features, such as filtering by flood source or setting your personalized map views

  • access the PDF version if required

  • access Met Office weather and warnings, other hazard advice and services in one portal

User guides and videos to help you get started on Hazard Manager are available at the Hazard Manager Help Centre

FGS by email

Signing up for the FGS by email allows you to:

  • receive the FGS as a PDF each day into your inbox

  • select which local authority areas you are interested in

  • select whether you wish to receive the FGS at different flood risk levels - we advise signing up for all risk levels so you receive all the information available in the lead up to any floods

  • sign up for the FGS text message service

Personal information for Hazard Manager and email users is managed in line with the Met Office privacy policy.

ResilienceDirect

The FGS can be downloaded in PDF version from ResilienceDirect.

If you have a Resilience Direct account, the FGS can be viewed on the Flood Forecasting Centre group page.

Currently, the FGS is uploaded to Resilience Direct:

  • when the overall flood risk is coloured yellow or above

  • some time after the FFC issue time – to get the FGS and updates as soon as they are issued, we recommend using the Hazard Manager or email options

Application Programming Interface (API) for developers

The FGS is available as Open Data through an API.

All parts of the FGS are available in a digital format, including:

  • thumbnail maps
  • trends
  • text
  • flood risk areas
  • public 5-day flood risk forecast

For more information contact FFCenquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.

The Flood Outlook

Overview

The Flood Outlook is for planners who need to make decisions at a timescale of 6 to 30 days. It:

  • provides flood likelihood guidance for the coming month in England and Wales

  • is issued twice a month

  • is accompanied by a recorded ‘bite sized’ video briefing

The video briefing:

  • is available by 4pm on the day the Flood Outlook is issued

  • gives further background and context to support your interpretation of the outlook

Signing up for the Flood Outlook

You can sign up to receive the Flood Outlook:

  • through the Met Office’s Hazard Manager – if you receive the FGS on Hazard Manager you will automatically have access to the Flood Outlook

  • on ResilienceDirect

Access to Flood Outlook through Hazard Manager

Signing up for the Flood Outlook through Hazard Manager allows you to:

  • download a PDF version

  • access the link to the video briefing

  • access the Flood Outlook from the same portal as the FGS and Met Office services

Access to the Flood Outlook through ResilienceDirect

Signing up for the Flood Outlook through ResilienceDirect allows you to:

  • download the most recent Flood Outlook and video briefing from the group page

  • receive notifications when a new Flood Outlook is issued

  • access archive copies of the Flood Outlook

To access the Flood Outlook service:

  • log into your Resilience Direct account (or create a new account)

  • sign up to the Flood Forecasting Centre – Flood Outlook group

You will need to have a Resilience Direct account through your own organisation. The FFC cannot approve new users to Resilience Direct.

Training videos for FFC services

FGS training videos

To help you understand the FGS ‘bite sized’ training videos are available (opens in Vimeo):

If you need further information on how the FGS is put together a more detailed video is available:

Flood Outlook training videos

To help you understand the Flood Outlook ‘bite sized’ training videos are available (opens in Vimeo):

Other guidance and support for FFC services

FGS user guides

Further details on how to access and understand the FGS are in the:

Webinars

We provide drop-in webinar sessions on the FGS and Flood Outlook from time to time. To find out more, contact us at FFCenquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Training for your organisation

We can provide specific training and materials on FFC services for your organisation.

For more information contact FFCenquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Public flood risk forecast

The Flood Forecasting Centre (FFC) assessment of flood risk is published as the 5-day flood risk summary and maps for England and Wales.

Flood alerts and warnings for your area

The Environment Agency is responsible for issuing flood alerts and warnings in England.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is responsible for issuing flood alerts and warnings in Wales.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for issuing flood alerts and warnings in Scotland.

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