Meteorologists and Wildfires

Meteorologists are well-known as forecasters, but a relatively unknown aspect of meteorological operations is the role they take when tackling a raging wildfire.

On average each year, wildfires kill 30 people, destroy 2,800 homes and burn millions of acres of land, with a total price-tag around $2 billion.

Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) help keep fire crews safe by interpreting weather information, evaluating its impact on the fire and relaying necessary information to the fire crews. The IMETs are National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters who are specially trained to provide weather support at a fire location.

There are IMETs in NWS locations across the country. Once a large wildfire has started, an IMET receives orders to travel to the wildfire site as quickly as possible.

IMETs will often visit different locations within the fire. The ground can have several different topographic features; if there is a terrain change, that could impact the weather. To better understand these extremely-localized changes, Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) are placed around the fire to feed data to the IMET, so a better forecast can be made. Additionally, weather balloons are launched at the fire site, to get better data for the air above the fire.

In the areas around fires, thunderstorms yielding little rain but plenty of lightning is not uncommon. As a result, IMETs are glued to their screens during such events, keeping an eye on every little detail to make sure that the fire crews are not at risk from lightning. Additionally, changing winds need to be monitored, as strong gusts could cause the fire to shift, injuring firefighters or cutting off their path to safety.

Forecasting for a wildfire incident is very different than general weather forecasts, as the focus is on a small area over a short amount of time. Because of the quick turnover, there is immediate feedback on an IMET’s forecast, as compared to the larger scale of more general forecasts.

Credit: NWS
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Story Image: The set-up for an IMET who is keeping tabs on the weather at a fire incident via NWS