WRF-Hydro® Model Code
Current Release
Users must build the code (i.e. executable files) on their own machines. Please refer to the Technical Description & User Guides for support on how to build the stand-alone WRF-Hydro® and fully-coupled WRF/WRF-Hydro® executables.
As of June 2018 active development of the WRF-Hydro source code occurs in a public Github repository. The public repository provides an account of modern software development practices including but not limited to: versioning, issues, bug fixes, tags, testing, and guidelines for community contribution.
Supported Releases
| Version | Download | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 5.4.0 | WRF-Hydro® v5.4 | Source Code DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15040873 | Release Notes WRF-Hydro® v5.4 | March 2025 |
| 5.3.0 | WRF-Hydro® v5.3 | Source Code DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5773161 | Release Notes WRF-Hydro® v5.3 | February 2024 |
| 5.2.0 | WRF-Hydro® v5.2 | Source Code DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4479912 | Release Notes WRF-Hydro® v5.2| v5.2 Technical Description | December 2021 |
| 5.1.1 | WRF-Hydro® v5.1.1 | Source Code DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3625238 | Release Notes WRF-Hydro® v5.1.1 | v5.1.1 Technical Description | January 2020 |
| 5.0.3 | WRF-Hydro® v5.0.3 | Release Notes WRF-Hydro® v5.0.3 (Use the Technical Description for v5.0) | October 2018 |
| 5.0 | WRF-Hydro® v5.0.0 | Source Code DOI: 10.5065/D6J38RBJ |Release Notes WRF-Hydro v5.0 | v5Technical Description | May 2018 |
WRF-Hydro® Coupling with Other Systems
Noah and Noah-MP LSM/HRLDAS
WRF-Hydro® users who use the Noah land surface models will find information specific to the Noah and Noah-MP LSM and the accompanying High Resolution Land Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS) at https://ral.ucar.edu/hap/land-atmosphere-interactions
Note: Noah LSM is legacy and is no longer supported.
NASA Land Information System (LIS)
WRF-Hydro® users who are interested in using the NASA Land Information System (LIS) with WRF-Hydro® will find information specific to LIS at http://lis.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The coupled system is available as part of the NASA Land Coupler.
NCAR Community Earth System Model/Community Land Model (CESM/CLM)
WRF-Hydro® users who are interested in using the NCAR Community Earth System Model/Community Land Model (CESM/CLM) with WRF-Hydro® will find information specific to those models at http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/tss/clm/.
Note: The coupling to CESM/CLM is presently at a prototype stage and no user support for this is presently available.
Resources
- Terms of Use License Agreement (235.12 KB)
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Building an Open Source Community Around the National Water Model, Kyle T. Mandli
Description
Presentation Given at AGU Fall Meeting, Dec 12, 2018 - Link to AGU Session Abstract
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Contribution Guidelines
Description
WRF-Hydro model source code is open for contribution. See our Contribution Guidelines.
- Read about WRF-Hydro® V5 Updates from V3
How to Cite
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WRF-Hydro® modeling system technical description, (Version 5.4.0)
Description
Until further notice please cite the WRF-Hydro Modeling System V5.4.0 as follows
Gochis, D.J., M. Barlage, R. Cabell, M. Casali, E. Dougherty, A. Dugger, T. Eidhammer, T. Enzminger, K. FitzGerald, F. Felfelani, A. Gaydos, A. Mazrooei, M. McAllister, J. McCreight, A. McCluskey, N. Omani, A. RafieeiNasab, S. Rasmussen, L. Read, K. Sampson, I. Srivastava, D. Yates, Y. Zhang (2025). The WRF-Hydro® Modeling System Technical Description, (Version 5.4). NCAR Technical Note, 10.5281/zenodo.15040873. Available online at: https://wrf-hydro.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
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Citations for Past Releases
Description
For Citations to past releases, see the corresponding documentation for other releases.
Past Releases
We recommend using the most current version. Support is no longer provided for the following past versions.
| Version | Download | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | WRF_Hydro®_v3.0.tar.gz | v3.0 Change Log | Technical Description & User Guide |Source Code DOI: https://doi.org/10.5065/D6DN43TQ | 2015 |
| 2.0.1 | WRF_Hydro®_v2.0.1.tar.gz | v2.0.1 major changes | |
| 2.0 | WRF_Hydro®_v2.0.tar.gz | | |
| 1.0 | WRF_Hydro®_v1.0_update.tar.gz | Technical Description & User Guide | 2013 |