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Natural Resource
Agency Responsibilities
The natural resource agencies will oversee the fire weather
observation program, including the siting and maintenance of the
observing equipment, fire weather training of their personnel, and
the proficiency of their personnel in the use of the NWS Spot
software.
Natural resource agencies will monitor the quality and timeliness
of NWS fire weather products, and provide feedback the the NWS in
order to improve services to the agencies.
The natural resource agencies may, from time to time, advise the
NWS of new technologies being implemented to monitor meteorological
or fuel parameters, or to improve communication, coordination,
training or reference. Natural resource agency personnel may, with
prior arrangement, visit an NWS office to acquire a knowledge of NWS
technologies used in the monitoring of weather, or the preparation
of products.
Internet will be the primary method of obtaining the Fire Weather
Forecast, Red Flag Warning, Fire Weather Watch, and for both
requesting and receiving a Spot Forecast. As a backup method, a
request can be made to the NWS for a product to be faxed to the
customer agency. NFDRS observations will be entered into WIMS, and
forecasts and calculations based on these observations will be
received by WIMS, or by internet via a WIMS website.
Fire weather observation stations provide the specialized weather
observations for fire weather forecasts, wildfire control and
suppression, and various other land management operations. These
stations were selected very carefully in each state and federal
district. Sites were chosen to represent homogeneous weather
conditions across a district. Stations may either be manned sites
operated by land management agencies, or unmanned, Remote Automatic
Weather Stations (RAWS) maintained by any of the federal or state
land management agencies in the area.
All observation stations are assigned a 6-digit
identification/location number. The first two digits indicate the
state, the second two digits indicated the county, and the last two
digits indicated the consecutively-assigned station number for that
county. Land managers who wish to have a number assigned to a
station should contact the GACC meteorologist at SACC in
Atlanta.
RAWS stations are also assigned an 8 character alphanumeric
identifier based on satellite transmission time. The NESDIS ID,
transmit channel and time are assigned by the US Forest Service
National RAWS program.
Observations from a satellite telemetered RAWS will automatically
flow into WIMS via the NESDIS ID. Observations are only entered
manually if the RAWS is neither satellite telemetered, nor a
participant on the WIMS hub. The RAWS owner must enter WIMS and
manually change a recorded observation (an R ob) to an observed
observation (an O ob), manually enter the state of the weather, and
save the observation to WIMS.
It is the responsibility of the RAWS (station) owner to ensure
that observations are transmitted, recorded and archived in WIMS.
While the process is largely automated by the use of telemetry
equipment on the RAWS station, there are still manual inputs that
must be made in WIMS in a timely manner by the station owner to
ensure that RAWS observations flow to the NWS on schedule. NFDRS
forecasts are based on RAWS observations that are received from a
collective created by WIMS and distributed to the NWS via
AWIPS. Every effort should be made to ensure the quality of the
observations before entry into WIMS. If the observation is known to
be in error, it should not be entered into the system, or should be
corrected by the RAWS owner.
It is important to note, observations are the
most important single effort the control agencies put into the Fire
Weather Program. Potential fire danger is derived from these
observations. The Fire Danger Rating System is the guidance tool
that, together with the weather forecast, is used to make a variety
of management decisions. It is important that observers be well
trained and informed of the necessity for accurate, timely, and
representative observations.
The user agencies are also responsible for maintaining
observation site equipment. NWS personnel may accompany the user on
maintenance trips or for annual inspection visits, which could also
serve as liaison with the users.
The responsibility of training natural resource agency employees
will be that of the agencies themselves. However, the NWS will be
available to assist when requested to do so. Any expenses incurred
by the NWS will normally be charged to the user agency, unless other
arrangements have been made.
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