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  • Managing the Cumberland River: How the Corps works to reduce flood risk

    When heavy rain falls across Tennessee and Kentucky, many people wonder: What is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doing to manage the water? The answer is a complex, coordinated effort involving monitoring, real-time decision-making, and strategic dam operations designed to reduce flood risks along the Cumberland River system. While flood control is one of the Corps’ primary missions, the reality is that nature does not always cooperate. The USACE Nashville District’s highly trained engineers, dam operators, and other water management professionals carefully balance the flow of water through the system—holding back water when possible and releasing it in a controlled manner to minimize damage downstream.

  • Weekend weather was wet, wasn’t worrisome

    Dry January is typically associated with people making New Years resolutions to stop drinking alcohol for the month, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the original instigator of this fad. Many USACE dams have flood risk management as an authorized purpose, which means the agency uses them to help reduce flooding to downstream communities.

  • Don’t bet on the weather: The role hydropower plays in balancing the grid during extreme circumstances

    The power grid produces as it is consumed. Energy production rises and falls in tandem with human activity, allowing electricity to flow continuously into homes and businesses . However, this flow can be interrupted.

  • Ready to respond whenever storms strike the Pittsburgh Region

    The Pittsburgh District mitigates flood damages throughout its 26,000 square foot region with a network of 16 strategically placed reservoirs that capture storm runoff and reduce downstream risks. The system of reservoirs has prevented $48 billion in damages since their construction began after the 1936 St. Patrick’s Day Flood. The district monitors water levels year-round, adjusts dam operations during storms, collaborates with local, state, and federal agencies, and provides technical and disaster recovery assistance to improve community resilience against future storms.

  • Corps of Engineers monitoring Cumberland water levels due to heavy rain

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (May 8, 2024) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is monitoring current and forecasted Cumberland River Basin conditions and making operational water management adjustments as necessary.

  • Army water regulators await torrent of winter moisture set to blast the Pacific Northwest

    A stream of atmospheric rivers will be flowing through parts the Pacific Northwest at the beginning of December, drastically changing the region’s most recent crisp, dry autumn – a seemingly strange occurrence. The National Weather Service’s (NWS) Portland office is predicting that up to three atmospheric rivers will pummel the region, bringing a very active weather pattern that will dump plenty of rain at lower elevations and snow to the Cascades.

  • 23-054 Turner Gulch courtesy dock will be removed until March 1, 2024

    Boise, Idaho – The Turner Gulch seasonal courtesy dock, maintained and regularly adjusted under license agreement to Ada County Parks and Waterways, will be removed from Dec. 1, 2023, to March 1, 2024. The ramp will remain open for use without the courtesy dock.

  • Incorporating Advanced Snow Microphysics and Lateral Transport into the Noah-Multiparameterization (Noah-MP) Land Surface Model

    Abstract: The dynamic state of the land surface presents challenges and opportunities for military and civil operations in extreme cold environments. In particular, the effects of snow and frozen ground on Soldier and vehicle mobility are hard to overstate. Current authoritative weather and land models are run at global scales (i.e., dx > 10 km) and are of limited use at the Soldier scale (dx < 100 m). Here, we describe several snow physics upgrades made to the Noah-Multiparameterization (Noah-MP) community land surface model (LSM). These upgrades include a blowing snow overlay to simulate the lateral redistribution of snow by the wind and the addition of new prognostic snow microstructure variables, namely grain size and bond radius. These additions represent major upgrades to the snow component of the Noah-MP LSM because they incorporate processes and methods used in more specialized snow modeling frameworks. These upgrades are demonstrated in idealized and real-world applications. The test simulations were promising and show that the newly added snow physics replicate observed behavior with reasonable accuracy. We hope these upgrades facilitate ongoing and future research on characterizing the effects of the integrated snow and soil land surface in extreme cold environments at the tactical scale.

  • NR 23-16: Reservoirs below summer pool elevations due to lack of rain

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 6, 2023) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District’s water managers report that two reservoirs in the Cumberland River Basin did not receive enough rain this spring to reach their traditional summer pool elevations.

  • Frigid temps increase power demand while Army dams balance needs

    With frigid temperatures and near record-setting snow accumulation in some areas of the Pacific Northwest, Army dams responded by producing power to keep the lights and heat on. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has 21 dams in the Columbia and Willamette river basins that ramp up power production to keep the grid stable during high demands.