Thousands of homes across Tayside and Fife have been assessed as at risk of flooding by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
New flood warning areas have been established in a bid to encourage households and businesses to better prepare for the worst.
In Perth and Kinross, the agency has highlighted some 6599 at risk properties, while in Angus the warning affects a further 1172.
SEPA released the figures as it launched a new state-of-the-art service that will provide the earliest possible warning for residents living in communities at threat.
The Scotland-wide floodline direct warning service aims to give residents in warning areas valuable time to take action and protect their families, homes and businesses.
Its launch comes after communities in and around Perth experienced some of the worst flooding in years. Perth has long been exposed to the problem of flooding, with the events of January 1993 likely to live long in residents’ memories.
There was widespread devastation of the town’s North Muirton area as more than 850 homes were seriously flooded and 300 households left languishing in temporary accommodation for up to 10 months.
The Kinross-shire town of Milnathort has been repeatedly hit by flooding in recent years, with residents and businesses forced to pick up the pieces time and time again.
Town centre businesses and homes in Perth suffered in July last year, while the Fairfield housing estate was virtually cut off for several hours and a “river of water” greeted fire-fighters attending at Feus Road.
Bridge of Earn was hit hard in January as snowfall, storms and heavy rain all battered the area, causing the River Earn to burst its banks.
Environment and climate change minister Roseanna Cunningham described it as an “essential tool,” and urged people to sign up for the free warnings, which will be sent to registered mobile phones and landlines.
Funding from the Scottish Government has enabled SEPA to provide the new direct warning service, which has been hailed as a significant improvement to the existing Floodline.
Previously the public relied on hearing about flooding through the media, by word of mouth, through local services or by contacting SEPA’s 24-hour recorded telephone service.
Now anyone living in Perthshire including those who live in, work or travel through areas at risk of flooding can sign up to the new service and receive details on the likelihood and timing of any potential flooding threat.
This ensures everyone can get the benefit of SEPA’s extensive flood forecasting expertise and monitoring networks.
Professor James Curran, SEPA’s director of science and strategy, said the improvements made to Floodline represented a huge step forward in terms of flood warning for Scotland.
“Making it easier for people to help themselves is a key part to this,” he said.
“Signing-up to Floodline’s direct warning service can be done online, by phone or by filling-in a registration form.
“In fact, we’re sending thousands of these directly to properties in flood warning areas.
“Residents should look out for these valuable envelopes, use their contents and if they receive a flood warning message take action.”
Ms Cunningham added, “The Floodline direct warning service is a quick and up to date way of making sure that communities know about the risk of flooding in their area as soon as possible, giving them more time to prepare and protect themselves.
“I want as many people as possible to sign up to this free service and improve their resilience to flooding.
“This is not just about homes as the benefits apply equally to businesses and we have recently seen that they can be disrupted by flooding, too.”
Tayside and Angus residents can sign up now to the new Floodline direct warning service by visiting www.floodlinescotland.org.uk/signup.