Weather on Tap
While the belt weather kit remains a firefighting tradition, remote weather sensing has become a vital component of the U.S. wildland fire program since its first use in the early 1900s. Back then, newly established land management agencies used fire lookouts and rangers to collect weather information and statistics. Accurate and timely weather data from remote locations was needed to help make decisions specific to wildland fires and other resource management activities.
The earliest weather stations relied on measurements that were taken and recorded by hand, usually once a day. In the 1970s, the first remote automated weather stations, or RAWS, were engineered and operationally deployed. Today, there are 2,200 RAWS scattered across the United States that are owned and managed by federal and state agencies, counties and other jurisdictions.
The RAWS are very ruggedly constructed and can withstand the rigors of extreme environmental conditions. Each station includes sensors that measure weather parameters such as temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, wind direction, precipitation and solar radiation. An internal battery pack with a solar panel keeps it charged, allowing the hardware to operate for months with no external power source.
RAWS weather data is automatically collected every hour and transmitted via the GOES satellite to a computer system at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, managed by the Bureau of Land Management. This data is automatically forwarded to several other computer systems such as the National Weather Service, the Weather Information Management System, the Wildland Fire Management Information System and the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nevada.
Data from the weather stations is routinely used to calculate daily fire danger indices, which are part of the National Fire Danger Rating System. The National Weather Service relies on RAWS data to prepare a variety of products used in land management, including daily fire weather forecasts, watches and warnings, and spot weather forecasts for specific on-the-ground projects. RAWS data is also used by a variety of other decision support systems and groups including Predictive Services, the Wildland Fire Decision Support System and such software applications as Fire Family PlusBehave and FARSITE, which combines long-term weather trends with geospatial fire predictions.
Current observations from weather stations can be obtained from a number of sources such as the National Weather Service, WIMS, WFMI and the Real-time Observation Monitor and Analysis Network. Historical data is archived in standardized formats by WRCC and WIMS.
The National Wildland Coordinating Group established standards for managing fire weather stations in PMS 426-3, Interagency Wildland Fire Weather Station Standards and Guidelines. This document provides common standards for the three basic types of weather stations used by wildland fire agencies: NFDRS weather stations, portable Fire RAWS and manual weather stations. It also includes guidelines for the annual maintenance of equipment and where NFDRS stations should be located in a wildland environment, ensuring the quality and value of the weather data.
The RAWS network in the United States is a reliable and robust system, providing accurate and timely weather sensing data. Current weather observations and historical data is easy to obtain and a vital part of wildland fire management decision-making — both as we plan for fires and as we manage the initial incident and long-term fires.
Rich is the owner of LarchFire LLC, and an associate of Wildland Fire Associates. Outfitted with a B.S. in Forestry, he started his career as a seasonal employee with the Forest Service, and then moved on to permanent positions with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a Fire Management Officer and national level fire planner. In 2008 Rich retired from the federal government after 32 years in fire management. Rich is a consultant specializing in wildland fire planning, forestry, prescribed fire and fire behavior and has been a qualified fire behavior analyst since 1994.
A Review of the Forest Service Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) Network, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-119, December 2003, J. Zachariassen, K. Zeller, N. Nikolov, T. McClelland.
Interagency Wildland Fire Weather Station Standards and Guidelines, PMS 426-3, August 2009.
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