Thanks to my friends at the US NWS IMET office who shared a great video called "Forecast Earth: Forecasting the Inferno" from the National Weather Service and the Weather Channel. In this 22 minute video you will learn about what IMETs do on a wildfire along with other ways that the National Weather Service helps wildland firefighters.
Before I get to the video, I took the opportunity to ask my friends at the NWS IMET office on Facebook how IMETs are deployed. First they confirmed my understanding that IMETs are not deployed to every wildfire going on to say that for they tend to be deployed to type 1 and type 2 wildifires. For more on the incident command system and how wildfires are classified go this document from the National Park Service. I asked for some clarity about how IMETs are deployed, this was their response:
Someone from the Incident Management Team fills out a form requesting an IMET by a certain day/time. This request goes to the local dispatch office, and eventually to the NWS person who works in the NIFC complex. That NWS person will contact the IMET and let them know that a request has come in (usually the closest available IMET to the incident). Then a name is placed, and the paperwork goes through the IMETs local dispatch office to close the loop and make sure they have all they need to get to the incident by the requested time.
IMETs save lives!
Enjoy this video, "Forecast Earth: Forecasting the Inferno"
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