1	Fire Weather John Horel NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction Department of Meteorology University of Utah
2	Fire Weather Internet Resources National Fire plan: www.fireplan.gov National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): www.nifc.gov GACCs: www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/geomap.html Fire Danger PocketCards: famweb.nwcg.gov/pocketcards GeoMAC: geomac.usgs.gov DRI: www.wrcc.dri.edu/fire/FW2.html Wildland Fire Assessment System: www.fs.fed.us/land/wfas/
3	Fire terminology Crown fire - a severe fire where flames travel from tree to tree at the level of the tree’s crowns or tops. Fire line - a zone along a fire’s edge where there is little or no fuel available to the fire Backfire - a fire started to stop an advancing fire by creating a burned area in its path Firebrand - flaming or glowing fuel particles that can be carried naturally by wind, convection currents or gravity into unburned fuels Spotting - outbreak of secondary fires as firebrands or other burning materials are carried ahead of the main fire by winds wildfire - an unwanted fire that requires measures of control. firing pattern - the specific pattern and timing of ignition of a prescribed fire to affect the direction or rate of fire spread and fire intensity.
4	Dimple Dell. Sandy. Summer 2001
5	Red Butte. Salt Lake City
6	Springville. June 30, 2002
7	Spruce & subalpine fir crowning
8	Spot fire 0.8 km from main fire (crowning)
9	http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/billionz.html#LIST
10	Trend in # Fires and Total Yearly Acreage
11	Top Ten Fire Years: 1960-2002
12	Selected Major Historical Fires
13	Peshtigo, Wisconsin Fire Oct. 8–14 1871 over 1,500 lives lost and 3.8 million acres burned in nation's worst forest fire Weather: prolonged and widespread drought and high temperatures, capped off by a cyclonic storm in early October Started same day as Chicago fire (cow/lantern) http://www.peshtigofire.info/
14	Fires: 1981-2000 http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/rsgis_fire/
15	Fire Triangle
16	Topography The most constant in time of the three factors, but may vary over space. Elevation, aspect, slope steepness, landform characteristics. Linked to spatial variations in climate (determines fuel type and loading) and temporal and spatial variations in weather.
17	Fire shape & intensity pattern depend on slope angle, orientation, wind direction and speed
18	The fire environment fuels weather topography
19	Fuels, continued The amount of wildland fuel available for burning depends on fuel moisture, which depends directly on past and present atmospheric humidity and precipitation. Different fuels respond to changes in humidity and precipitation at different rates.
20	Fuel moisture content The most important variable in determining fire ignition, rate of combustion, and energy output from fire. fmc = 100 * (field weight-oven dry weight)/ODW dead fuels, 1.5-30% moisture content live fuels, 35-200% moisture content Live FMC varies seasonally with phenology. Dead FMC varies daily with moisture. Fire Danger Rating uses Dead FMC as a key component.
21	Dead fuels Four size classes with characteristic reaction times (time lags) to changes in atmospheric moisture 1-h 0 to 0.25" (0-6mm) 10-h 0.25 to 1.0" (6 to 25mm) 100-h 1.0 to 3.0" (25 to 76mm) 1000-h 3.0 to 8.0" (76 to 203mm)
22	Time lag concept, 10-hr fuels
23	Diurnal changes in relative humidity
24	Weather Is the most variable over time and is the most difficult for the resource manager to predict. Directly affects fire behaviour and significantly affects smoke production and dispersion. Lightning, strong winds, precipitation and humidity
25	Automatic fire weather stations
26	In-the-field weather support
27	Indicators of stable air
28	Indicators of unstable air
29	Summit fire (OR), plume-dominated. Lightning and downbursts developed in convective column
30	Beneficial fires - to meet resource management objectives: to reduce the danger of large catastrophic fires to prepare land for planting to control spread of disease or insect infestations to benefit plant species that are dependent on fire to influence plant succession to alter soil nutrients
31	Prescribed fire
32	Firing patterns
33	Backfiring in light grass at Kingman, AZ, June 1994
34	Prescribed burning, AZ, Nov 1995. Was burned also in 1989 and 1992. Quantity and duration of smoke was greatly reduced on 2nd and 3rd burns.
35	Backfiring in heavy fuels near McCall, Idaho, Aug 1994
36	Prescribed fires in western OR
37	Smoke management
38	Plumes from E Oregon and central Idaho fires, 29 July 1989
39	Satellite photo of smoke transport
40	Smoke creates hazardous flying conditions near fire camp
41	Summary
42	Drought in the West
43	Fuel/Vegetation
44	Evolution of Greenness: 2002
45
46
47	Hayman Fire
48
49
50	Aftermath
51
52	Rodeo-Chediski
53
54	"QLCA3" QLCA3
55
56	Biscuit Fire
57
58	Aug. 16: http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/fire_maps.html
59	Weather
60	Seattle Times Thursday, December 12, 2002 Sweeping shift in forest policy: Bush plan would skip environmental reviews WASHINGTON — In a sweeping forest-policy revision, the Bush administration announced plans yesterday to fundamentally alter how it manages federal lands by skipping extensive environmental reviews in the name of wildfire prevention. The proposal is part of a strategy to streamline environmental laws and help the land-management bureaucracy tick along more smoothly. It would allow the administration, in many cases, to skip traditional environmental analysis for projects that reduce wildfire risks or rehabilitate forests after wildfires occur. But environmentalists saw the changes as an attempt to remove the public's voice from decision-making while the administration tries to boost logging on federal lands. And some in Congress viewed the proposals as an attempt to sidestep lawmakers. The debate heated up last fall, after more than 7 million acres burned nationwide and President Bush announced his "Healthy Forests Initiative." The plan called for a range of changes, from limiting bureaucratic processes and appeals to expediting work that reduces wildfire dangers.
61	Drought and Fire Outlook
62	Summer ’03?