Cumulus serves as the centralized, national gridded data service for CWMS. It collects, archives, and delivers real-time and forecasted meteorological data—primarily precipitation, temperature, and snow—from the National Weather Service and other trusted sources. Users can access and download data on demand via the Cumulus website or through the extract process integrated within HEC-RTS.
Planned Activities
| Activity | Funded Amount | Delivery Date |
|---|
| Support Field Operations | $60,000 (labor) | |
| Add New Products | $50,000 (labor) | |
| Improve Performance | $50,000 (labor) | |
| Enhance Validation and Monitoring Tools | $30,000 (labor) | |
| Improve Website Interface | $50,000 (labor) | |
| Improve Forecast Versioning | $30,000 (labor) | |
| Develop Admin Documentation | $5,000 (labor) | |
| Update Product Notes | $7,500 (labor) | |
| Develop Process to Migrate Historical Data from T7 Servers | $15,000 (labor) | |
| Provide Cloud Development Training and Support | $75,000 (labor) $30,000 (travel) | |
Support Field Operations
The Cumulus team will continue to provide user support and ensure reliability of the national gridded data service. Reports submitted by users through cwms-griddeddata-support@usace.army.mil will be addressed, and the Cumulus GitHub Repository will be used to track issues and resolutions.
Add New Products
The team will address the backlog of requests for new product additions, including the NOAA Analysis of Record Calibration (AORC) period-of-record precipitation dataset, expanded offerings from the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC), soil moisture data, and ensemble products.
As Cumulus usage increases—along with the number and size of available products—noticeable performance issues have emerged, particularly in query efficiency and interface rendering. The team will investigate opportunities to optimize system performance and may engage contractor support to address these challenges.
The team will implement validation tests to ensure accurate transformation of source data into Cumulus's cloud-optimized GeoTIFF gridded format. For service monitoring, the Prometheus toolkit is currently used to track metrics such as data reporting continuity and overall system health. Planned enhancements include adding monitoring for data volume and usage, as well as setting up alerting capabilities.
Improve Website Interface
The team will enhance the Cumulus website interface by adding more detailed information about data availability. A key addition will be the development of a new Map Explorer, offering users an interactive tool to locate available data products and define download areas based on their specific geographic regions of interest.
Improve Forecast Versioning
Enhancements to Cumulus will be made to improve management of versioned forecast products, including updates to the Cumulus API that offer users more straightforward options to select specific forecast versions from the available archives.
Develop Admin Documentation
The team will develop administrator documentation to streamline the onboarding process for new members.
Update Product Notes
The team will enhance and update the product notes on the Cumulus website to provide users with more detailed information about the data sources and product metadata, including details such as data resolution and coordinate systems.
Develop Process to Migrate Historical Data from T7 Servers
The team will offer guidance to districts on necessary archive data cleanup before migration. Additionally, they will develop a process for transferring archive files to the cloud and ingesting them into Cumulus.
Provide Cloud Development Training and Support
Lead Cumulus developers will deliver training and ongoing support to national team members, equipping them with the skills and tools needed to configure infrastructure for cloud deployment.