Fire Weather Zones
Last updated on 7/28/2023 2:07:27 PM.
Overview
This dataset depicts Fire Weather (Wx) Zones that are used by the National Weather Service in the Fire Weather Forecast program. A fire weather zone is generally a small, county-sized area of land with similar climate, weather, and terrain characteristics. Forecast information for zones is used for pre-suppression and planning purposes.
In WFDSS, the lookup from this data layer gets the weather forecast office (CWA) and forecast zone (ZONE) and uses that to query and parse the correct fire weather forecast from https://www.weather.gov/. The layer is also used to get a fire weather forecast for insertion into a decision.
Data Input
- Attribute Accuracy Report: All attributes were verified by the individual Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) by inspection of the data with a GIS or by viewing a hard or software image of the data. Error reports received from WFO's and external users also contributed to the accuracy of the Attributes.
- Logically Consistency Report: These data are believed to be logically consistent. Testing was performed by finding the smallest polygons and determining them to be "slivers" or genuine polygons and by overlaying a large polygon and combining, to find "holes' in the data. Since this dataset is a polygon shapefile, line geometry is presumed to be topologically clean.
- Completeness Report: The shoreline boundaries are dependent on the shoreline edges of rivers and bays as delineated on a USGS DLG. The edges or borders of the boundaries might change as the natural land changes and as WFOs request changes. The zone boundaries are consistent with county boundaries when county boundaries correspond to zone boundaries and the accuracy of the zone boundaries that do not lie on county boundaries as provided by the WFO or other sources containing boundaries for National and State Forests.
- Positional Accuracy Report: The data was created from USGS 1:2,000,000 DLG county data and assumed to have the same horizontal accuracy of that dataset. The internal accuracy of the zones that "split" counties varies depending on the criteria used to "split" the county (township line, contour line, hand drawn, etc.)
Data Information
Source:
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National Weather Service (OST/SEC GIS Map Group)
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Source Data Currency:
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3/8/23
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Extent:
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United States and all Commonwealths, Territories, and Freely Associated States
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Projection/Datum:
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GCS, NAD 83
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Data Download:
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Go to NWS Download
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Change History
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View Documentation
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WFDSS GIS Team
The WFDSS application is "data rich". It requires data which is spatially oriented and graphically displays information to support wildland fire and other natural resource decisions. In April 2009 an interagency GIS team was formed to provide data support for WFDSS. This team is responsible for acquiring, consolidating, and validating their agency spatial and tabular data. In addition this team develops and maintains communications among local, regional, and national agency personnel to improve the collection process and provide explicit guidance on data needs. The members of the WFDSS GIS team are:
Table 1: WFDSS GIS Team
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WFMRD&A
Amanda Rumsey
Data Scientist
208.830.0160
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WFMRD&A
Jonah Vaughan
GIS Specialist
406.531.4702
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WFMRD&A
Susan McClendon
GIS Specialist
208.258.4244
send email
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BLM - AFS
Jennifer L. Jenkins
GIS Specialist
907.356.5587
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BLM - NIFC
Julie Osterkamp
Natural Resource Specialist
801.520.8702
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BIA - NIFC
Joseph Kafka
Fire Management Specialist
208.387.5572
send email
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NPS - NIFC
Skip Edel
Fire - GIS Program Lead
303.969.2947
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USFS - NIFC
Cole Belongie
Data Coordinator
208.488.5246
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USFWS - NIFC
Andrew Bailey
National Fire Planner
208-387-5345
send email
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