Submitted by: Chuck Redman and Larry Van Bussum, National Weather Service, Office of the Chief Operating Officer, Silver Springs , Md.
The roots of the Fire Weather Program can be traced back to around 1912, when, according to the annual Report of the Chief of the Weather Bureau for 1914, warnings were issued “for coming of hot dry winds in the valuable timber regions of the West—that is warnings of atmospheric conditions that are particularly favorable to the inception and spread of forest fires.” By 1913 Edward Beals, a forecaster from Portland Oregon developed a forecast approach to assist in forecasting these conditions.
The Incident Meteorologist (IMET) program, a specialized service within the broader fire weather program, got its start in July , 1928, on the 26,000 acre Miller Canyon fire in the Santa Barbara National Forest, southeast of San Jose, California. Weather Bureau fire weather forecaster Leslie G. (L.G.) Gray took the prototype fire weather mobile unit vehicle with him to the fire. By 1929, that vehicle along with only a few more forecasters, was put into operation across the West. Use of the fire weather mobile unit vehicles evolved to 19 units and continued to be used until the early 1980’s. IMETs have supported U.S. firefighting efforts for 97 years, having served on thousands of incidents including wildfires, Rx fires, HAZMAT, Space Shuttle Columbia Recovery, and oil spills. Since 1987, there have been almost 4400 dispatches corresponding to approximately 42,000 days or almost 67 years of accumulated field time. The IMET program of today now involves a cadre of 90 meteorologists who serve on-site with the Incident Command Teams. IMETs now travel to incidents with computer and upper air equipment that now fits in a box the size of a suitcase. In past years, IMETs have also assisted the Australian Bureau of Meteorology during some particularly devastating fire seasons in that country.
Future plans for both the Fire Weather and IMET Programs consist of fire detections using both polar orbiting and GOES satellites along with ways to collaborate with other land management agencies bringing a more holistic approach to the fire weather program.
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