IMETs working northern California wildfires (Oct 2017): update

I am sharing a nice video that I believe was from earlier the week of October 16th (perhaps Monday, October 16th?) courtesy of the Weather Channel. You will hear NWS incident meteorologist  (IMET)  Tom Wright (from the US NWS Medford OR) then assigned to the Southern LNU Complex (which includes the Atlas Fire) describing the then current weather situation over the Southern LNU Complex.

IMET Wright was asked what the biggest challenge was that he faced as a meteorologist assigned to this fire. He said forecasting the winds and went on to discuss a little about the challenges the winds posed.



You may recall that one of my blog entries for Friday, October 13th was devoted to IMETs working the northern California wildfires. Just before I posted that article, I reached out the IMET staff behind the US National Weather Service, IMET Facebook page I asked them a question which I get to in a moment. I had started out be mentioning that I knew that these were wind driven fires. I had used the term Santa Anna winds, only to later realize that what are know as Santa Ana Winds in Southern California are called Diablo Winds in the Bay area (see this blog entry on the Diablo Winds).

Random Ramblings: Is there one thing that you would like my readers to know about what IMETs contribute to helping firefighters fight these firestorms (my reference to the wildfires in northern California), and are these contributions different from what they usually do?

US National Weather Service IMET Office: In terms of the work being done by the IMETs in California, it is similar to what we do with other fires. Certainly the Santa Ana winds are something unique to California and are a challenge, but our mission remains the same, which is to keep firefighters and the public safe and support the Incident Management Team with weather information so that they can make tactical decisions on their windows of opportunity and when they may need to disengage.

As I write this article on October 18th, an IMET from the US National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office at Hanford CA is being deployed to the Southern LNU Complex. As of earlier this morning (October 18th), the Atlas Fire referenced in the Weather Channel interview with IMET Wright has burned 51,064 acres and is at 83 percent containment.



IMETs save lives!!