A team of scientists has developed a new method for predicting the risk of dangerous flooding by measuring the water in various rivers.

According to LiveScience.com, the researchers looked at different river basins in the months that preceded this spring's flooding season. Their method was fairly fundamental, as they found dangerous flooding can be expected when the ground is most soaked from past rains.

"Just like a bucket can only hold so much water, the same concept applies to river basins," study lead author J.T. Reager, an earth scientist at the University of California, Irvine, told LiveScience.com. "This gives the background on what's on the ground before the rain even gets there."

Reager and his team published their study Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Using satellite data, the researchers examined past river floods, such as the ones that occurred in Missouri in 2011. They found that with their method they could predict dangerous flooding five months ahead of time and could potentially extend that window to 11 months. The Missouri river floods lasted months, shutting down interstate highways and more, but the warnings were only administered about one month in advance.

Originally purposed to measure melting ice sheets, NASA's twin GRACE satellites helped the researchers make early flooding predictions. As they circle the Earth, slight gravitational pulls alter the satellites' orbit, tipping the researchers off to buildups of snow or water.

Reager and his team still have some work to do because their method was only successful when looking back on floods that have already happened. It is also incapable of predicting flash floods, which are inherently much more dangerous due to their unpredictable nature.

"This gives us a more accurate interpretation of what's happening on the ground," Reager said of the joint effort with NASA. "GRACE can only see this slow saturation flooding."