402
NOUS41 KBUF 081804
PNSBUF
NYZ003-013-014-101815-

Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Buffalo NY
104 PM EST Wed Jan 8 2025


To:       Subscribers:
          -Family of Services
          -NOAA Weather Wire Services
          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
           Other NWS partners, users, and employees

From:      Mike Fries
           Meteorologist in Charge
           Weather Forecast Office Buffalo, NY

Subject:   Relocation of the river forecast point on the Genesee
           River at Avon (AVON6) 0.3 miles downstream.

The National Weather Service (NWS) will move the Genesee River at
Avon forecast point around Monday February 10th, from the old
location near the Route 5/20 bridge to the new location at the old
Erie Railroad Bridge/Trail location. The new station will retain
the NWSLI ID AVON6, and the flood levels will remain the following:

Action Stage     30 feet
Minor Flood      33 feet
Moderate Flood   37 feet
Major Flood      40 feet

For many years, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has operated and
maintained a stream gauge on the Genesee River near the Route 5/20
bridge just to the west of Avon. This has been the location of the
NWS river forecast point since 1969. Recently it was discovered that
at high river levels, the Genesee River exhibits significant backwater
effects that adversely impact the location`s rating table (or the
relationship between the river flow and gauge height). This will
degrade the quality of the river forecast, as the output of the
raw river forecast is flow, which needs to be converted to gauge
height for the public river forecast. It was determined that the
best solution was to move the gauging station about 0.3 of a mile
downstream to the old Erie Railroad bridge/trail and to
discontinue the old gauging station near the Route 5/20 bridge.
While the new location does still exhibit some backwater impacts
at higher levels, the backwater impact is less than at the present
location. Additionally, a velocity gauge has been installed at
the new location to provide a more accurate real-time gauge
height vs flow value.

Since the USGS plans to relocated the old Avon gauging station, the
NWS will need to move the Genesee River at Avon forecast point as
well. The old and new Avon gauging stations have been running in
parallel for several years, and it was determined that when the
Genesee River is at lower levels, the new gauge height reading is
about 0.25 feet lower than the old gauge height reading. At higher
levels near and above flood stage, the difference is even less than
0.25 feet. Therefore, the flood stage levels will not change with
this move.

The NWS welcomes public feedback. If you have any questions or
comments on this change, please contact:

Dan Kelly
NWS Buffalo

Phone: 716-565-0204
E-mail: Dan.Kelly@noaa.gov


$$

Kelly