Keyboard short-cut: Alt, M, R.
This function starts the WARMF simulator. When selected, the following dialog box appears:
The Beginning and Ending Dates encompass the time period to be simulated. Initial conditions for the simulation should be based on the day before the beginning date. To change either date, click the left mouse button on either the day, month, or year. Use the mouse to click on the up and down arrows (
, 
) to change the value. The keyboard arrow keys perform the same function. The day, month, or year can also be entered directly with the letters and numbers on the keyboard. The beginning and ending dates are restricted based on the range of dates in all the input meteorology (.MET) files, air quality (.AIR) file, and managed flow (.FLO) files.
The Hours per time step is 24 by default. There must be meterology and managed flow data for each time step. The time step must divide evenly into 24 hours. Hydrology is always simulated, but other simulation items are optional. Options may be turned on and off by clicking with the mouse on the check box (
). Simulations of hydrology alone run at about 5 times the speed of simulations which include Water Quality. The Sediment, Land Application, and Point Sources options do not have a large impact upon simulation time, so those should be checked if input data is provided for the options and water quality is being simulated.
The list under Subwatersheds shows the downstream boundary of all subwatersheds in the system. Each subwatershed selected will be simulated. By default, the entire Map is simulated. Clicking on a subwatershed turns simulation off or back on for that subwatershed.
Check Hydrology Autocalibration to start an autocalibration simulation. The constraints for the autocalibration must be set up beforehand under Edit / Autocalibration Coefficients. The Number of simulations is the number of complete simulations the autocalibation simulation can make before stopping on its own. A good autocalibration will generally take a few thousand loops, depending on the number of coefficients which are set to be adjusted. An autocalibration simulation can be stopped and then restarted again from where it left off with a loss of 0-2 simulations worth of calibration. The simulation will run in the background, so the computer is free for other uses, but files opened by the simulator will not be available. Output files and observed data files will not be available when the simulator is at the end of each simulation, but will otherwise be available for viewing so the progress of the autocalibration can be assessed without stopping it. Refer to Edit / Save Calibrated Coefficients to save the results of autocalibration.
To initialize a simulation’s coefficients with the conditions at the end of another simulation, check Initial Conditions from Warm Start File and specify the name of the file to use by clicking on Select. Every simulation creates a file with a .WST extension with values for its coefficients at the end of the simulation.
Click OK to start the simulation. A new window is then created with the Caption “Model”. The simulation runs independently and the user is free to continue using the GUI and any other Windows programs during the simulation. Care should be taken, however, to avoid opening files in use by the simulation, as this may cause an error and terminate the simulation.
See also…
Soil Initial Conditions
River Initial Conditions
Reservoir Initial Conditions
Reservoir Initial Temperature
View / Subwatersheds