Wildland firefighters sometimes get obsessive about one-third of the Fire Behavior Triangle. When you arrive at a wildland fire, you can assess the topography and the fuel, and what you see will not change a great deal in the near future.
But weather is dynamic and can change in the blink of an eye. Skilled wildland firefighters become skilled at predicting how the weather will affect their fire in the near term.
The size-up of a fire begins before you arrive at the scene. Part of size-up is monitoring the weather conditions and forecasts.
Where do you get your weather information on the Internet?
Dick suggested that we collect information from our loyal readers about great sources of weather data and forecasts. Let us know in a comment what your favorite sources are.
To make it easier for others to go to your recommended sites, and if you feel like making them an actual clickable link, use the format below for the link. Use it exactly as below, but replace Name Of Link with the informal (but short) name of the site or data. And replace WebAddress with, yes, the web address or URL, such as http://www.weathersite.com Leave the quotation marks in place, just replace what’s between them.
<a href=”WebAddress”>Name Of Link</a>
But if you don’t feel like attempting to make the link, no problem, I’ll edit the comments to make them into clickable links.
And please include a short description of what is at the link.
I’ll start with a few of my favorite weather links.
- Smoke plumes from fires NOAA’s “Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product”
- Remote Automatic Weather Stations A map showing locations of RAWS stations. Western Regional Climate Center
- RAWS data displayed on a map Meso West
- Weather forecast with graphs of forecasted variables. You will need to search near the top of the page for your city and state for which you want the forecast. Then, at lower right, click on the map to fine-tune the location. Then, below the map, click on “Hourly Weather Graph”.
- Interactive GOES-12 satellite imagery, zoomable, east continental United States
- Interactive GOES-12 satellite imagery, zoomable, west continental United States
- MOS Weather model, shows wind direction & speed 12 to 60 hours out, continental United States
- Sunrise & Sunset calculator, US Naval Observatory
- Climate Prediction Center Dick pointed this out the other day HERE. This is a great site with multiple types of medium and long-range forecasts
OK, that’s just a start. What are YOUR favorite weather sites?
Real Time WeatherThis is part of NCAR [National Center for Atmospheric Research]. Lots of GOOD stuff including going to NCAR Home. Sat imagery permits up to 12 hour loops [up to 33 images]! Western Region ForecastsThis is an interactive map that, after a few clicks, gets you to a pretty specific 7-Day Forecast. After the first click check out the blue column on the left. Under Forecasts often you will find Discussion or Local Discussion. It is semi-technical but reasonable for us lay people. A great learning tool. I often use discussions from 2 or more adjacent NWS offices to extrapolate what might really be happening for an isolated locale. Cool stuff to mix meteorology with reality [personal observation].Enjoy!LR
we (FL-DOF) get our weather from the National Weather Service Office, which provides us with a daily fire weather forecast, available on the agency’s websitewhich is also read daily over our District radio network at morning radio test, and re updated at 2pm
Oh those frigid Santa Ana [wind] nights spent patrolling, hoping to find a smoldering log to curl up to. And those HOT days of line building. Onset of hypothermia or hyperthermia can be sinister. Thought processes blur. Either one can bite us on the ass before we even know that nasty dog is creeping up on us. These two links offer pause for thought. Heat Index CalculatorWind Chill CalculatorIt is 37 years since the last of my glorious Hot Shot days. Oh the joys of being young, fit and strong. Of going into places and conditions "sane" people would never dream of. Overconfidence or, worse yet, blind confidence is a setup. A snide remark that drifted forward to my seat on a bus we were sharing with an Indian crew en route to an Arizona fire suggests it. "Hot Shits."Be prepared. Keep your eyes open and think! Know that you are fallible. Enjoy life!!LR
I just can’t stay away. I had a link to a great USFS active map of current lightning strikes for SoCal on an old harddrive but R5 no longer has it.A few more: Weatheroffice of Environment Canada has some good products. This one reveals all of North America or just western NA depending on the time of day. This shows it all at a glance. During large fires or outbreaks broad-ranging smoke plumes can be quite revealing.Western North AmericaNWS Strom Prediction CenterCRWSOne more. After all, from the ground up it is all a river of air and so interactive.NWS Aviation WeatherLR
REAL-TIME LIGHTNING!!! World Wide Lightning Location NetworkIt took a few hours. I found one out of University of Washington. Data appears to have a 2 hour lag. It took me a few minutes to figure this site out. Current lightning strikes from around the world! Click the purple "HERE" to present all the strike sites on Google Earth. Then, wheel Earth around to the US for example. Zoom in a bit and you will start seeing red squares [lightning strikes]. Zoom in enough to differentiate "strikes on top of strikes" i.e. make sure you have separated really close squares. Move the hand cursor to a red square until the hand becomes an arrow. Right click your mouse. Left click Properties. There ya go! LAT/LON. The appropriate file in the Temporary Places window on the left side of your screen will be highlighted. The size of the red square decreases with time i.e. the bigger the square, the more recent the strike.ALRIGHT! LR
These are great sites. Keep ‘em coming!