Accurate weather observations are necessary both for the safe management of prescribed fires and for the resource-efficient fires that naturally ignite. Accurately measured parameters, such as temperature S-TMB-M002, S-TMB-M006, S-TMB-M017, soil moisture S-SMC-M005, S-SMD-M005, rainfall S-RGA-M002, S-RGB- M002, S-RGC-M002, S-RGD-M002 wind speed S-WSB-M003, wind direction S-WDA-M003, S-WSET-B, S-WCA-M003, S-WCF-M003 air temperature and relative humidity S- THB-M002, S-THB-M008, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) S-LIA-M003, total solar radiation S-LIB-M003, leaf humidity S-LWA-M003, etc.
Provides a reliable assessment of current conditions and allows for better weather forecasting. This leads to better fire behavior predictions.
The importance of timely and accurate measurements cannot be overstated, weather conditions directly affect fire and smoke behavior, fuel condition and flammability, and ultimately, the safety of firefighters and the public
Kevin Osborn, candidate for Master of Science in Forestry at Cal Poly, is a first-year firefighter and crew of ten in the Sequoia Wildfire Module (Fortenberg) in Springville, California's Sequoia National Forest. Osborn noted that the Sequoia Fortemberg crew is specialized in monitoring fires that manage regulations and resource efficiency, and that wildfires need to be included when training. He said his crew would "cut fire lines, use chainsaws, walk from here to the ends of the earth, and whatever else the crew does."
Last summer's sheep fire was ignited by lightning in Kings Canyon National Park, and Osborne was on the scene. This was a fire on July 16, 2010. The fire spread into the Sequoia National Forest and was eventually contained to its west
As part of its best practices in fire management, Sequoia Fortenburg uses research grade HOBO® weather stations U30-NRC, U30-GSM(RX3003-00-01), U30-ETH(RX3001-00-01) , U30-WIFI (RX3002-00-01)
Hourly meteorological parameter readings are collected. The data is offloaded daily, expressed using accompanying Hoboware® software, and crews are notified of new fire weather trends during morning meetings.
Osborne said that in one instance, during an evening burnout operation held with a fire, the weather station was set to read every half hour, and the darkness made it difficult to measure humidity with a traditional strip weather kit (sling psychrometer , anemometer, and conversion table). He explained, "In increasing risk operations in the shooting device, having weather information every half hour is to ensure that temperature, humidity, and wind characteristics do not change, which can reduce fire safety conditions. Each reading in half an hour is shifted, which is read Passed tactical radio frequencies keep firefighters aware of weather conditions."
Although primarily used as observational data during the morning fire meeting, Osborne said fire behavior analysis could in the future use the collected fire weather data as input for firefighting software such as FSPro modeling (a predictive model that looks at the probability of fire spread). In this way, HOBO data logger information can make a greater contribution to increased understanding and knowledge of fire behavior, thereby further improving fire protection and public safety.
