Modernizing Fire Weather Services into the FACETs Framework

An outgrowth of NOAA’s Weather Ready Nation initiatives, the concept of Forecasting A Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs) was designed to replace the National Weather Service’s (NWS) teletype-era deterministic, product-centric methodologies with a modernized, science-based framework that delivers a continuous stream of high-resolution, probabilistic hazard information in support of empowering informed decision making. The FACETs framework is also designed to optimize forecast communications for user-specific decision-making through the integrated application of social, behavioral, and economic sciences. With increased attention to wildland fire following the tragedies across the country and an influx of Congressionally appropriated disaster supplemental funding, the NWS must find ways to modernize fire weather services into the FACETs framework. This presentation will describe the background, vision, and critical elements of how the FACETs framework has been and could be applied to wildland fire moving forward.