IMETs in action: August 10th

We are in the height of the summer wildfire season in the western United States, so the NWS Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) have been busy this week. Before I get to that, I want to share a couple of Facebook posts on what IMETs do from the NWS IMET Facebook Page.

On August 10th the NWS IMET on Facebook shared a nice informational post with a graphic and a couple of photos on what IMETs do. Among the things that IMETs do are: issuing weather watches and forecasts, doing crew briefings, radio updates, assisting with weather stations, media interviews and public meetings. If you have been following my blog posts on IMETs, then you know about weather balloon launches done by IMETs, here is a Facebook post from US Forest Service Sierra National Forest Facebook page that I found on the NWS IMET Facebook page recently, it is a short video where you learn about weather balloon launches and how an IMET uses the data gathered from the balloon launch.

There have been several IMETs deployed to wildfires since August 6th. In the interest of time and accuracy, I am only linking to the deployment post from the NWS IMET Facebook Page, if you want more information about the specific wildfire you may follow the links in the post on the NWS IMET Facebook Page.

August 6th deployments
NWS Columbia South Carolina IMET to the Rattlesnake Creek Fire near Riggins, Idaho.
NWS San Francisco Bay IMET to the Carr Fire near Redding, California.
NWS Southern Region HQ IMET to Medocino Complex near Potter Valley, California.
NWS Spokane Washington IMET to Crescent Mountain Fire near Winthrop, Washington.
NWS Las Vagas Nevada IMET to Donnell Fire near Dardanelle, California.

August 7th deployments
NWS Western Region HQ IMET to Coal Hollow Fire near Price, Utah.
NWS Eureka California IMET to Mendocino Complex near Potter Valley, California

August 9th deployments
NWS Blacksburg Virginia IMET enroute to South Umpqua Complex near Days Creek, Oregon.
NWS Medford Oregon IMET Trainee enroute to Carr Fire near Redding, California.
NWS Portland Oregon IMET enroute to Maple Fire near Hoodsort, Washington.

IMETs save lives. Thanks to all the IMETs who are currently working wildfires to give important weather forecasts, briefings, etc to wildland firefighters. Stay safe.