Extended Abstract (64K)6.5
New tools for fire danger assessment in Florida
Charles H. Paxton, NOAA/NWS, Ruskin, FL; and A. G. Laing
The National Weather Service Graphical Forecast Editor (GFE) will be used in forecast offices to produce graphical fire weather forecasts in addition to text forecasts. Graphical forecasts will provide more detail than text based forecasts by revealing weather trends over an area. For example, fire interests will better see humidity trends and timing of wind shifts and precipitation. The software’s scripting and grid manipulation capability extends farther though, and provides methods to derive new fire weather forecast parameters. For example, results from a wind regime based lightning climatology are imported as grids and merged with precipitation forecasts, new grid based dispersion and fire behavior indices are calculated based on model sounding data, and smoke plume forecasts are overlaid on detailed maps.
Session 6, Predictive Services
Wednesday, 14 November 2001, 3:20 PM-5:20 PM
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