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August 17, 2001 — Many new large fires were reported in the Northwest and the eastern Great Basin areas as hot and dry weather continues to lead to extreme fire danger throughout the western areas of the country. NOAA's National Weather Service meteorologists are deployed to fires as more than a half million acres burn in 11 states threatening communities. (Click NOAA image for larger view of Chris Gibson, one of the National Weather Service Incident Meteorologist from Salt Lake City, Utah, uses a hand-held radio to provide updated weather observations when he is deployed to a fire camp.)

According to Larry Van Bussum, the National Weather Service's fire weather meteorologist at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, "We have very high to extreme fire indices being reported in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The initial attack activity by fire fighters Thursday was heavy in Southern California, Northern Rockies and Eastern Great Basin. Our forecasters are briefing the land management agencies' managers that the weekend doesn't look good in many areas."

The National Weather Service currently has 16 of the agency's 50 specially trained forecasters, called Incident Meteorologists or IMETs, dispatched to fires in California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. Other IMETs are working in the geographic area coordinating centers providing current weather forecasts to the assembled mix of federal land management agencies.

Current Weather Situation from NOAA's National Weather Service
NWS meteorologists are expecting conditions to become windy over the weekend in the Pacific Northwest as a low pressure system off the British Columbia coast moves onshore. Winds of 20 to 30 mph with higher gusts are expected over much of Washington, Oregon, and northern California. The low pressure system will spread to the east through the weekend bringing cooler temperature.

The Weather Forecast Outlook
The outlook is for the weather to turn cool and wet by the middle of next week as a Gulf of Alaska weather system moves onshore. This system will also bring some breezy conditions.

Gary Bennett is a seasoned IMET with more than 18 years experience in fire weather. Bennett is currently at the Central Washington Area Command Center in Wenatchee. His role is to support IMETs on six of the seven major fire complexes currently going on in the eastern Washington area.

"The fires are the worse I have personally seen since 1994 for these areas of eastern Washington. The winds are quite strong along the Cascade Mountain Range's eastern slopes. The sustained winds have been 15 to 25 miles per hour at tree top—about 20 feet above the ground—and we have noted gusts up to 35 miles per hour in some locations," said Bennett.

Relevant Web Sites
Updated forecast information is available on the home pages of local National Weather Service offices. These pages are organized by geographic regions of the country.

NOAA's Fire Weather Information Center

For additional information on the NOAA's Fire Weather Program, please visit NOAA's National Fire Forecasts, Offices and Outlooks, Boise, Idaho.

Latest NOAA Satellite Images of Fires

NOAA's NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECASTERS PROVIDE CRITICAL SUPPORT TO WILDFIRE MANAGEMENT

All About Wild Fires

NOAA's Fire Weather Program (Describes wild fire weather terms)

Fire Weather Forecasts from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma

National Interagency Fire Center — Includes latest news and glossary of wildfire terms

Media Contact:
Marilu Trainor, NOAA's National Weather Service Western Region, (801) 524-5692 ext. 226