Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) is a reservoir-operations strategy that better informs decisions to retain or release water by integrating additional flexibility in operation policies and rules with enhanced monitoring and improved weather and water forecasts. A multi-agency report, called Final Viability Assessment for Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations at Lake Mendocino, describes how utilizing modern forecasting tools have helped operators increase the lake’s dry season stores of drinking water, improve its ability to alleviate flood risk, and enhance environmental conditions in the downstream Russian River to support salmonid species.
Leaders from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sonoma Water, Bureau of Reclamation, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA National Weather Service, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography provide commentary on this innovative new strategy.
Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) is a reservoir-operations strategy that better informs decisions to retain or release water by integrating additional flexibility in operation policies and rules with enhanced monitoring and improved weather and water forecasts. A multi-agency report, called Final Viability Assessment for Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations at Lake Mendocino, describes how utilizing modern forecasting tools have helped operators increase the lake’s dry season stores of drinking water, improve its ability to alleviate flood risk, and enhance environmental conditions in the downstream Russian River to support salmonid species.
Leaders from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sonoma Water, Bureau of Reclamation, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA National Weather Service, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography provide commentary on this innovative new strategy.
