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>> I'm Eric Pilack [assume spelling] I manage
the weather and streamflow forecasting group

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at the Bonneville Power Administration, which
is out in Portland Oregon and we do the weather

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and streamflow forecasting for the federal dams

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in the Pacific Northwest
for electricity generation.

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Basically, the weather and stream filled
forecasts are going into decisions

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for how much electricity we need
to generate on any given day, week,

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month and then also how much water we have
available to generate that electricity

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and to run it through our
dams in an optimal way.

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We also are managing constraints on
the system like maintaining irrigation,

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maintaining navigation, helping
maintain flows for fish migration

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so it's a pretty complicated and fun job.

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We're using a lot of weather models,
weather and streamflow modeling systems.

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The weather models we get from
NOAA the National Weather Service

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and then we do value added products for that and
then we have our own hydrologic model on site,

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it's actually a hydrologic model that's
used pretty widely in federal agencies

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across the United States and we use that to
forecast the water going through the system.

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A busy day starts early, it's about
6:30, 7AM and we're right away starting

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to do the weather forecast for 8am briefings and
then those briefings help plan those decisions

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for the next few hours to days to weeks.

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While all of that's going on and we go back
and start issuing our streamflow forecasts

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and then that's the second
round of information we provide

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and then we're doing briefings throughout
the day, we're doing a lot of support 1:1,

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1 on few with different groups
within the power of administration.

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We're even doing some severe weather
support in terms of transmission,

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making sure that we're not
getting ice or snow on the lines

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and that helps us to manage the system better.