The Governor of Colorado signed a bill Wednesday that authorizes the state to spend $1.2 million over the next two years on a “revolutionary” wildfire prediction system that uses weather data, groundbreaking computer modeling, and high resolution satellite imagery to predict the spread of fires up to 18 hours in advance.
Below is an excerpt from an article at the (Colorado Springs) Gazette:
…”This bill will predict the intensity and the direction of fires 12 to 18 hours ahead of time. That is really important so we know where to direct our planes, the aircraft we had a bill for last year, and our firefighters,” said Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, D-Arvada, who introduced the bill. “This is really revolutionary.”
Under the new law, the Division of Fire Prevention and Control will contract with a nonprofit Colorado-based research organization with expertise in atmospheric science to predict wildfire behavior. The National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federally funded program headquartered in Boulder, is the only state agency that meets that criteria. NCAR has used modeling to accurately recreate the behavior of historic fires, including the Yarnell Hill fire that killed 19 Arizona firefighters in 2013.
She said the new technology could be in place by next spring and will work with the state’s new aerial fire fleet, a multimillion-dollar investment into wildfire detecting and fighting aircraft lawmakers made in 2013…
Janice Coen at the National Center for Atmospheric Research is one of the scientists working on this program. We have written about her work previously:
- Better satellite imagery enables improved wildfire mapping and growth predictions
- Simulation of winds affecting the Yarnell Hill Fire
- Supercomputer model of Esperanza fire
- Fingers of fire
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Barbara.
Added a photo of the bill signing, which includes Dr. Janice Coen.
Good wildland fire science should equal good wildland fire management. Janice (Dr. Cohen) has been doing good work on atmospheric interactions with wildland fire for years. A past International Association of Wildland Fire member of the Board, she also presented at the IAWF’s Wildland Fire Safety Summit recently held in Boise.