Five regional Fire Consortia for Advanced Modeling of Meteorology and Smoke (FCAMMS) have been established under the framework of the U.S. National Fire Plan (NFP) to conduct research on fire weather, fire danger, fire behavior, and smoke transport/diffusion and to develop new predictive tools for aiding fire-fighting and fire-management activities both regionally and nationally. One of those Consortia is the Eastern Area Modeling Consortium (EAMC), established to address fire-atmosphere interaction issues in the north central and northeastern U.S.

The EAMC is a multi-agency coalition of researchers, fire managers, air-quality managers, and natural resource managers at the Federal, State, and local levels that is specifically addressing the following objectives: (1) Employ atmospheric mesoscale models to make effective predictions of fire-weather and develop improved fire-weather indices at the national and regional levels; (2) Link fire-weather predictions with fuel loadings and fire potential derived from the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) strategic monitoring of fuel conditions to provide improved estimates of daily wildland fire potential; (3) Develop improved atmospheric mesoscale model predictions of smoke transport and diffusion from wildland and prescribed fires; and (4) Ensure compatibility of EAMC products with the products and tools under development in the other FCAMMS.

This paper provides an overview and update on the status of the EAMC, including the progress made to date in developing an overall EAMC research and product development strategy, securing EAMC funding, developing critical research and end-user partnerships, and building the internal capacity for carrying out the NFP-mandated research. The strengths of the EAMC as they relate to fire-weather and fire-atmosphere interaction research are also discussed.