Bridging the Gap between Fire Weather Research and Use in Operations

Enabling efficient and free-flowing communication between academics who work on fire weather forecasting and the individuals who use the tools and information that are produced is crucial for improving community resiliency as wildfire events increase in frequency and severity. To this end, the USDA Forest Service and Sonoma Technology hosted a workshop entitled ‘Gathering User Input for Long-term Fire Weather Outlooks’ at the 7^th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference, in Boise, ID, in April 2024. The 2-hour workshop was supported with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Weather Program, and participants spanned a wide range of affiliations and represented a variety of roles relevant to wildland fire. The workshop aimed to improve communication between research and operational sectors and link research and end-user priorities to improve the impacts of current and future projects. Participants answered surveys at the end of the workshop to guide these efforts. Questions gauged how participants evaluate tools and information sources and what training or support they find helpful for new or updated data and tools.

The requested training and evaluation for new tools and data included a range of actionable suggestions, such as in-depth documentation, webinars, in-person trainings, demonstrations, and case studies to increase understanding and trust. A final open-ended question for closing thoughts allowed participants to provide their overall impressions of research needs for fire weather decision-making and highlight what was most important to them. For instance, one participant wrote “In my opinion, one of the biggest challenges is sifting through all the guidance (tools, data, etc.) [to] see what is useful and for what purpose. Make sure we are actually creating guidance that solves the questions we have.” We will present a summary of the survey responses and actionable findings from the workshop as a next step to bridging the language gap between research and in-field deployment.