Fire Weather Professional Development Series

• PCU 2: Assess the Fire Environment - DRAFT

  Description of Job Duty Competency to be Achieved:
  
  Monitor and analyze the fire environment to anticipate and identify critical fire weather patterns, fuels, and topography.
  
  Description of Need:
  
  Identifying important features in the fire environment enables the forecaster to focus on specific threat areas within the CWA. Moreover, assessing the spatial and temporal evolution of the fire environment can improve decision-making skills by allowing the forecaster to better judge the potential severity of anticipated fire weather.

  • Ability 1. Analyze and Integrate local data
    • Skill 1.1. Include local data and fire weather specific data (e.g., RAWS) in analyzing weather situation
      • IC: S-290 Unit 8, Keeping Current with the Weather
  • Ability 2. Analyze and Integrate data from remote sensing tools
    • Skill 2.1. Analyze remote sensing data to support fire weather forecast development
      • IC: Multispectral Satellite Applications: Monitoring the Wildland Fire Cycle
  • Ability 3. Demonstrate a working knowledge of the terminology associated with fire environment.
    • Skill 3.1. Write fire weather products that use appropriate fire terminology
  • Ability 4. Apply fire danger concepts.
    • Skill 4.1. Evaluate current conditions and forecasted fire danger
    • Skill 4.2. Identify location of potential hazards
  • Ability 5. Apply fire behavior concepts.
    • Skill 5.1. Develop a forecast sensitive to how changes in weather will influence fire behavior
  • Ability 6. Identify and assess varying weather regimes in complex terrain, diurnal and local effects
    • Skill 6.1. Include local, diurnal, and mesoscale effects in formulating forecast
  • Ability 7. Identify and assess critical fire weather patterns, conditions and climatology.
    • Skill 7.1. Evaluate current and forecast weather patterns to determine whether critical patterns exist or are expected to develop
  • Ability 8. Identify and assess relevant fire weather forecast parameters
    • Skill 8.1. Include fire weather unique parameters in the forecast process (e.g., relative humidity, Haines Indes, lightning activity level
  • Ability 9. Integrate fire weather forecast techniques and tools
    • Skill 9.1. Develop fire weather forecast products using unique fire weather techniques and tools.