Exploiting the NWS Digital Forecast Database for Enhanced Customer Service

Michael Pat Murphy
Central Region, NWS

The "Prescribed Burn Planner", jointly developed at NWS offices in Rapid City and Kansas City, is a powerful new interactive tool that exploits the high-resolution digital forecasts now made by the NWS, and allows the Fire Weather customer to fully realize the power of detailed NWS forecasts.

The National Weather Service has implemented the Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS), which hosts the creation, storage, and dissemination of hourly weather forecasts in a 5km resolution Digital Forecast Database (DFD), extending out seven days. These DFDs provide much more forecast information than current NWS text products. Furthermore, customer initiated exploitation of the database can curtail the forecast to only the information pertinent to that specific customer, such as Fire Behaviorists planning prescribed burns. Current NWS textual Fire Weather Forecasts (FWF) are bounded by transmission times, and generalized zone-averaged forecasts that contain brief information for 12 hour blocks of time.

By "data-mining" the DFDs of individual NWS Forecast offices, burn planners can search the 7-day forecast for the occurrence of the precise weather conditions written in their burn plan, at the grid point nearest the location of the proposed burn (which will never be more than 2 or 3 km away). They can go so far as to display the exact hours that each weather parameter will be met, and have forecast information in one easy to read graphic, available and current, anytime of day or night. Previous applications of the Digital Forecast Database have been limited to static maps and graphics displaying the official NWS forecast. The Prescribed Burn Planner is unique in that it allows fire weather customers to interrogate the Digital Forecast Databases of local NWS Forecast Offices directly, searching for only the weather conditions needed at a specific time, and precise location. More forecast information is forecasted by the NWS than could ever be put into a text product. A typical Fire Weather Forecast product is about 3 to 5 pages of printed text. To print out the Digital Forecast Database from just one office would consume over 10 reams of paper. Use of this planning tool is helping land managers to more safely plan for prescribed burns. They have been able access the Digital Forecast Database at their convenience to quickly answer all their forecast questions.