Incident Meteorologists are ready to go wildfires to save lives

As I write this, it is May 6th, and to date Incident Meteorologists (IMET) have not yet been deployed to any fires. This slow start does not mean anything. The wildfire season could get very busy with a lot of IMET deployments. For example, according to a post from the NWS IMET Office on their Facebook Page: "As of 4.29, we haven't had anyone out on a mission yet, The only other time in the last 21 years that has happened was in 2015 (1st mission on 5/5) Despite the late start, we wound up with 153 missions. It wast the ninth busiest season on record ). Late Starts do not = Slow Seasons (obtained on May 6, 2019 from US National Weather Service IMET Facebook Page, April 29, 2019 post)


It is May 6th and to the best of my knowledge there has not yet been an IMET deployment to a wildfire. It does not really matter whether or not this will be a slow season, time will tell. The point is that when they get the call, IMETs are ready at a moments notice to go and provide onsite weather forecasting to help the wildland firefighters on the ground and in the air be safe as they work the fire. IMETs do save lives. Should the need arise, I know that IMETs will provide services to a wildfire in my neck of the woods. I am comforted by that knowledge. I hope that doesn't happen, but in this day and age, who knows what will happen.

Here are a couple of short videos where you can learn about what IMETs do. In the first video, listen to IMET Jeff Colton describe his work as an IMET on the 2018 Wapit Fire.

IMETs save lives!


Direct link to video

IMET's will often, but not always, deploy weather balloons to gather important meteorological data from the atmosphere, see the video below.


Direct link to video