OK, now the news must sensationalize the weather, I guess…especially after a dud winter. A local TV news station has listed various counties in MD under a Fire Weather alert (or warning). I guess we should expect bushes to spontaneously combust!
In short, this is ridiculous as we’ve had much, much, much drier conditions. Nothing like making people panic!
Have others heard of this in their weather forecast?
I think it is a combination of hot, dry, and windy that makes it fire weather. It just means you should be extra careful about where you throw your used cigarette, and depending on your local laws, there may be bans on camp fires and other open fires.
Stop by your local Fire Dept. Ask them how many times they have been out to extinguish brush or woods fires caused by someone “just burning a small pile of trash or brush and the wind just came up out of nowhere”. :wally
Never underestimate the stupidity of people playing with fire.
While Squink’s links are a start, they don’t explain what really is fire weather.
From Google:
Definitions of fire weather on the Web:
In other words, …
On a wildland fire there is often a weather forecaster (many times a NOAA weather forecaster), who works with the fire behavior specialist (FBS) to develop the weather forecast and the fire weather forecast.
At the daily morning briefing, the weather forecaster details the national, regional and local outlooks, and how all will impact upon the fire during that shift. In turn the FBS details the fire weather for that shift using the weather forecaster’s predictions and couples them with fuels indexes, moisture/drought conditions, live fuels moistures, dead fuels moistures, yadda, yadda. They come up with a very accurate fire behavior prediction for that fire for the shift. If it’s a big fire and there is a night shift, the afternoon briefing covers the same thing (but updated) for the night crews. Also, fire crew members now carry fire danger pocket cards for the local area during a shift. Morning briefings, regular radio contact (updates) all help, but the fire fighter on the ground in a particular location with a pocket card, training and experience is also part of the fire weather program.
Keep in mind that a wildland fire is affected by weather as well as effects the weather. During the height of fire season, that butterfly flapping its wings 500 miles away really does affect fire behavior. Just look at all the fire weather stations across the country. I’ve observed an FBS use RAWS data from 500 miles away to predict fire behavior for that day on our fire. A good FBS is uncanny in predictions and results. The FBS on our national incident team is one of the best in the country. Many of his fire behavior predictions are as accurate in location and time within 15 minutes on a prediction made up to ten hours old.
Huh?
Imagine your favorite TV weather forecaster standing in front of your home at 6:00 am on a summer’s day. The forecaster predicts the weather for the next 12 hours for your home and the surrounding ten blocks. The forecaster also takes into account your asphalt shingle roof, your lush green lawn, those two big ass trees out back, the street asphalt and concrete sidewalk, along with your neighbor’s roofs, lawns, trees, streets and sidewalks, the big hill down the block, building heights, yadda, yadda, and predicts your home will remain in full sun all day long but your friend who lives a block away will experience a light shower at about 3:00 pm that afternoon. The prediction later proves accurate.
FWIW, this fire season is off to an extremely early and robust start. The wildland fire stats for this year are way above average. Of course, you might think the Texas/Oklahoma grass fires are just an anomally, but the devil is in the details. The national outlook map for March (PDF warning) might not scare you, but the February-June outlook should make you crap in your pants. If those two don’t rile you, the US Drought Monitor should induce chest pains. Yes, Mother Nature has been known to throw curve balls and this year’s fire season could be normal, with just a few barn burners. However, all the indicators are predicting a bad fire year.
We’ll only know when it happens. We have to be ready, whether it happens or not.
It’s a common expression here during summer, especially in drought conditions, on days of 30+ temperatures, high winds and very low humidity.
I’m not sure, but I have heard of the term firestorm used as a weather term. It is a bit different however, as you need a fire, a really big one, no scratch that a really really f-n big one, one so hot and huge that it creates it’s own weather pattern, where gale (hurricane?) force winds rush into the heart of the fire, usually carrying additional fuel, where it is expelled upwards.
They generally call it “high fire danger” in the weather forecasts here. They close some parks (at a guess, so they don’t have to deal with people going there and lighting campfires or dropping cigarettes) and warn people to be careful with fire when it happens.
It’s not just dry weather that makes for high fire danger, either. Dry weather with no wind isn’t really that dangerous when it comes to fires. But add in some strong winds, and a small fire can very quickly become a big fire.