Fire Weather Forecaster Featured in Article

thunderhead cloud
South Dakota thunderhead. Photo by Bill Gabbert.

It’s not often that you see any news or articles about fire weather forecasters. We have come to depend on them and we probably take them for granted, so it is refreshing to see them receive a little publicity. Here is an excerpt from a ScrippsNews article about Richard Thompson, from Oxnard, California.

“But a lot of it also involves forecasting that relies as much on hunches and knowledge of local weather patterns as on science.

“The conditions can be pretty primitive out there,” said Thompson, who works out of the National Weather Service office in Oxnard, “but it can also be very rewarding work.”

Unlike the forecasts he produces behind a desk in Oxnard, Thompson’s field work generates almost instant feedback from firefighters. “If your forecasts are accurate or bad, they’ll let you know about them right away,” he said.

Gary Montgomery, a rangeland management specialist in Los Padres National Forest, uses forecasts by incident meteorologists to decide where to send firefighters and equipment during wildfires.”

 

Post Number 1: The Beginning

Fire east of Cody, Wyoming September 4, 2008
Fire east of Cody, Wyoming, Sept. 4, 2007. Photo By Bill Gabbert

As the new year begins, so does Wildfire Today. I hope, with this web site, to bring to light some of the current issues, news, and hot interesting topics in the world of wildland fire. Events and issues affecting wildland firefighters around the world will be written about in these pages. If you have news that you think would be of interest to other firefighters, send me an email, or put it in a comment at the end of a post.