NJFFSA16
08-29-2002, 05:06 AM
Associated Press Writer
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Steve Brown scowled at the digital map on his
computer screen, particularly the clusters of red dots showing
lightning storms.
"Those are all positive strikes. Positive strikes are the ones
that go from the cloud to the ground," he said.
"There's a lot of positive strikes," Sandy Gregory said,
looking over Brown's shoulder. "This is a bad afternoon."
Brown and Gregory are two foot soldiers in the war on wild
fires.
Brown, the former meteorologist in charge of the National
Weather Service office in Reno, is fire weather program manager.
Gregory is fuels management specialist, both working out of the
Reno office of the federal Bureau of Land Management.
"Steve is looking at the forecast. I look at the fuel
conditions. We look at that every single day," Gregory said.
"Steve looks at the fire danger aspect and I do the fire behavior
aspect of it."
Nevada became the first state to study fuel moisture, starting
with a 1980 research project. The meteorologists were added early
last year and now operate in all geographic areas in the nation
except the East and Alaska.
"My job is basically one to keep the managers informed around
the state of what's going on and what they can expect," Brown
said. "Then they can pre-position some resources."
Gregory monitors the moisture level in what fuels fires - from
grass to towering pines - in 67 locations around the state. When
Brown detects the likelihood of lightning, Gregory can forecast a
fire's behavior based on available fuel.
"We've developed the mathematics to go with it so we can
actually figure the rate of spread, fireline intensity and the heat
output for firefighter safety. We actually produce a fire behavior
forecast on a daily basis."
Along with informing fire incident commanders in the field, the
information also goes to team leaders headed for wild fires so they
know what to expect when they arrive on the fire line. The data
also are on the BLM's Web site.
"There's so much information that we're providing them when
they walk into this state now," Brown said. "I think we're
probably ahead of most states."
"We brief everybody in the world," he said. "I've done five
briefings today and those are the formal ones. The other ones, you
just get a call on the phone from the district office or something.
It's pretty constant."
Pat Murphy, incident commander of the firefighting team that
bears his name, said it's a valuable and potentially lifesaving
science because crews go into areas in which they're not familiar
with the fuels or the weather.
"We have to be sure we don't put someone out there in harm's
way," he said.
Murphy recalled a Utah fire that was rapidly closing in on a
wildlife refuge and the decision was made to set a huge fire break
until a meteorologist said monsoonal rain appeared to be
approaching.
The crews held off on setting the fire and the rains came.
"We probably saved 10,000 acres we would have had to burn," he
said.
Brown says his BLM work goes hand-in-hand with the spot
forecasts produced by his old employer, the National Weather
Service.
"It's kind of a perfect marriage, really," he said. "What
we're doing is giving more information now than was provided
before. The weather service has many different programs they have
to look at and they can't spend all the time that I do in getting
out the information. It's the only program that I have to worry
about."
Brown said he consults daily with weather service meteorologists
and fellow BLM forecasters to be sure all are in agreement with
their outlooks, especially when they cover a broad area.
"I've never seen a meteorologist who didn't want more data and
I think we're getting to the point where we're getting a lot
more," he said.
Gregory uses her data to forecast potential fire activity.
"I can actually determine the probability of ignitions in these
areas," she said.
In a year in which Nevada and about half the other 48 contiguous
states are in moderate to extreme drought, Gregory said the
condition of vegetation is dire, from light fuels like cheat grass
to heavy timber.
"When you have larger fuels they call 100-hour or thousand-hour
fuels - 3- to 9-inch diameter fuels like pinon or juniper that are
dead - as they bake in the sun they basically get kiln dried.
"In 1999 when we had those terrible fires we knew we were in
trouble because we had low fuel moistures.
I think this year is worse."
---
On the Net:
BLM Western Great Basin Coordinating Center:
http://www.nv.blm.gov/wgbcc/
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Steve Brown scowled at the digital map on his
computer screen, particularly the clusters of red dots showing
lightning storms.
"Those are all positive strikes. Positive strikes are the ones
that go from the cloud to the ground," he said.
"There's a lot of positive strikes," Sandy Gregory said,
looking over Brown's shoulder. "This is a bad afternoon."
Brown and Gregory are two foot soldiers in the war on wild
fires.
Brown, the former meteorologist in charge of the National
Weather Service office in Reno, is fire weather program manager.
Gregory is fuels management specialist, both working out of the
Reno office of the federal Bureau of Land Management.
"Steve is looking at the forecast. I look at the fuel
conditions. We look at that every single day," Gregory said.
"Steve looks at the fire danger aspect and I do the fire behavior
aspect of it."
Nevada became the first state to study fuel moisture, starting
with a 1980 research project. The meteorologists were added early
last year and now operate in all geographic areas in the nation
except the East and Alaska.
"My job is basically one to keep the managers informed around
the state of what's going on and what they can expect," Brown
said. "Then they can pre-position some resources."
Gregory monitors the moisture level in what fuels fires - from
grass to towering pines - in 67 locations around the state. When
Brown detects the likelihood of lightning, Gregory can forecast a
fire's behavior based on available fuel.
"We've developed the mathematics to go with it so we can
actually figure the rate of spread, fireline intensity and the heat
output for firefighter safety. We actually produce a fire behavior
forecast on a daily basis."
Along with informing fire incident commanders in the field, the
information also goes to team leaders headed for wild fires so they
know what to expect when they arrive on the fire line. The data
also are on the BLM's Web site.
"There's so much information that we're providing them when
they walk into this state now," Brown said. "I think we're
probably ahead of most states."
"We brief everybody in the world," he said. "I've done five
briefings today and those are the formal ones. The other ones, you
just get a call on the phone from the district office or something.
It's pretty constant."
Pat Murphy, incident commander of the firefighting team that
bears his name, said it's a valuable and potentially lifesaving
science because crews go into areas in which they're not familiar
with the fuels or the weather.
"We have to be sure we don't put someone out there in harm's
way," he said.
Murphy recalled a Utah fire that was rapidly closing in on a
wildlife refuge and the decision was made to set a huge fire break
until a meteorologist said monsoonal rain appeared to be
approaching.
The crews held off on setting the fire and the rains came.
"We probably saved 10,000 acres we would have had to burn," he
said.
Brown says his BLM work goes hand-in-hand with the spot
forecasts produced by his old employer, the National Weather
Service.
"It's kind of a perfect marriage, really," he said. "What
we're doing is giving more information now than was provided
before. The weather service has many different programs they have
to look at and they can't spend all the time that I do in getting
out the information. It's the only program that I have to worry
about."
Brown said he consults daily with weather service meteorologists
and fellow BLM forecasters to be sure all are in agreement with
their outlooks, especially when they cover a broad area.
"I've never seen a meteorologist who didn't want more data and
I think we're getting to the point where we're getting a lot
more," he said.
Gregory uses her data to forecast potential fire activity.
"I can actually determine the probability of ignitions in these
areas," she said.
In a year in which Nevada and about half the other 48 contiguous
states are in moderate to extreme drought, Gregory said the
condition of vegetation is dire, from light fuels like cheat grass
to heavy timber.
"When you have larger fuels they call 100-hour or thousand-hour
fuels - 3- to 9-inch diameter fuels like pinon or juniper that are
dead - as they bake in the sun they basically get kiln dried.
"In 1999 when we had those terrible fires we knew we were in
trouble because we had low fuel moistures.
I think this year is worse."
---
On the Net:
BLM Western Great Basin Coordinating Center:
http://www.nv.blm.gov/wgbcc/
National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/