Direct link to 2018 video from Goeff Liesik on YouTube
One of my interests in focusing on aerial and ground wildland firefighting is the role that Incident Meterologists from the National Weather Service have when they are deployed on wildfire incidents, see my July 2025 article for a longer article on Incident Meterologists (IMETs)a As we enter the spring wildfire season in the United States I am sharing a brief 2018 video from an Incident Meteorologist describing what he does
I want to start by reminding my readers about the important work that National Weather Service (NWS) Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) do. IMETs are NWS meteorologists that receive special training to go onsite to wildfires to provide weather forecasts for the particular incident they are assigned to. They will do daily briefings and more if necessary. The goal is to keep wildland firefighters and others on site safe from harm from wildfires. IMETs may also be deployed to other disasters such as hurricanes, and flooding. For more information about what IMETs do, please go to Eyes on the Sky: A Day in the Life of an Incident Meteorolgists on the Front LInes of a Fire to read more about what IMETs do and what a typical day is like for an IMET assigned to a fire.. In addition to you may want to go my July 30th post where I shared a 12 minute video from NOAA Boulder .
Direct link to Aug 12th Facebook post by the US National Weather Service IMET where they shared this post on the Dragon Bravo Fire
I have been aware of the Dragon Bravo Wildfire that was first reported on July 4th, caused by lightning. As I write this post on Aug 13th at 2 PM, 144,432 acres have burned and it is 44 percent contained. Evacuations, restrictions and closures remain in effect. I am glad to know that an IMET is assigned to this fire.
Direct link to 2021 video from NOAA Boulder on YouTube
Regular readers of my blog probably know that I am interested in the National Weather Service (NWS) Incident Meteorologist (IMETs) who are deployed to help with wildfire incidents. IMETs also help with hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters. When I saw the US NWS IMET office post this message on Facebook the other day stating they are 97 years old, I knew that I wanted to write about IMETs and to say thank-you for 97 years of service, What IMETs do is very important and I have a great deal of respect for them.
Direct link to July 29th post by the US National Weather Service IMET on Facebook
The NWS has a page which I have referred to in my earlier posts on IMETs called "Eyes on the Sky: A Day in the Life of an Incident Meteorologist (IMET) on the Front Lines of a Wildfire" It is a relatively short article discussing what IMETs do including a short discussion of the daily life of an IMET while deployed on a fire. They article says in part:
"Meteorologists from NWS work on the front lines to support agencies who prevent and fight wildfires, collaborating closely with state and local fire control agencies, as well as the Forest Service and other federal agencies.
Wildfires are not weather. However, weather conditions influence how easily a fire may start, how quickly it spreads and where the fire (and smoke) will move. Lightning strikes in dry areas are a common cause of these fires.
Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) help keep the fire crews safe by enabling responders to plan operations taking into account one of the most variable aspects of the incident — the weather. They are NWS Forecasters who have been specially trained and certified to provide weather support at a fire location.
IMETs keep firefighters safe by interpreting weather information, assessing its effect on the fire and communicating it to fire crews. Once on-site, IMETs become key members of the incident command teams and provide continuous meteorological support for the duration of the incident."
In the 12 minute video that I embedded at the beginning of this post you will hear Lisa Kriederman, who was Meteorologist and IMET in the NWS Boulder Colorado office when this video was recorded in 2021. She goes into a some more detail about what IMETS do with pictures. Among the topics she discusses: what IMETs bring to their deployment (all equipment, laptops, etc.), morning briefings, keeping up with weather forecasts, and working with incident managers and the community. This is only a brief list of Ms. Kriederman says IMETs do and I hope you take the time to watch the entire video.
I come here today to make an overdue post about the important role that National Weather Service Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) do when deployed on the site of a wildfire to help firefighters and others stay safe. See the photo essay below for more information:
Over the last week (July 17 to July 23) 18 IMETs have been deployed to wildfires (dates are approximate). I obtained this information from the US National Weather Service IMET (Office) on Facebook. I spent some time doing a search for information on these wildfires on Inciweb, any errors are mine. I did check the links before posting.
July 18th
The NWS Incident Meteorlologists (IMETs) had a busy 2023 season, see the embedded post below from their Facebook Page. Fully qualified IMETs were deployed to 149 missions with trainees being sent out on 27 missions (working with a fully qualified IMET). The 30-year normal number of IMET deploynets is 117. Note the word "mission." In following IMETs over the years, I have learned some wildfires see more than 1 IMET. Perhaps two IMETs are working one fire in different locations. Alternatively, an IMET may finish their two week deployment and another IMET is then deployed that that same wildfire.
Thank-you IMETs for all you do to keep wildland firefighters and the surrounding community safe during active wildfires. I am aware that you may work other non-wildfire events or may be deployed out of country to work a wildfire in that country.
I know that the National Weather Service's Weather Forecast Offices, including the NWS Forecast Office in Philadelphia/Mt. Holly that serves my area uses a computer system called Advance Interactive Processing (AWIPS) to assess meteorological data and in their weather forecasting. In the YouTube Video that I am sharing below, you will learn how NWS Incident Meteorologists use AWIPS in the field.
Here is the Facebook post from the US National Weather Service IMET about AWIPS in the cloud.
Here is the YouTube video referenced in the above Facebook post.
There have been several deployments of NWS Incident Meteorologists since August 25th. In the list of deployments, the first link in each deployment is to the US NWS IMET listing on Facebook and the second link is to InciWeb, or if there is no InciWeb information for the fire to another agency (if available).
IMET deployments on Friday, August 25th
As I write about the deployments of NWS Incident Meteorologists (IMET) to wildfires, and other missions as appropriate, I am always curious about the number of IMET deployments year to date. Every so often the US National Weather Service IMET (office) posts this information and I am always on the lookout for this information. As I was checking the US NWS IMET Facebook page late last night, I saw that they had made a post with this information on or about August 16th. I am embedding their post below. While they had 20 qualified IMETs and 2 trainees deployed at the time the IMET office posted on Facebook, I suspect that these numbers have changed, perhaps increasing? I saw this because at the time I write this I have noted several more deployments since they posted their year to date number for 2023.
IMETs save lives!
I check the NWS Incident Meteorologist Facebook page every day or so to see where IMETs are deployed and to get other news about IMETs. I am always interested in stories about what IMETs do so when I saw a reference to a September 2022 NOAA Photostory on what Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) do, I knew that I wanted to share the story with you. It is well worth checking out this photostory. You will see a couple of YouTube videos about IMETs in the photostory, one on protective gear and the second on using balloons for upper air weather observations. The photostory is divided into sections, each with a picture, you will learn about:
Direct link to video from ABC15 Arizona on YouTube
I have been following the National Weather Incident Meteorologists on Facebook for a few years now. To the best of my knowledge you do not need a Facebook account to access their site (but you may be prompted for an account which you should be able to bypass by clicking the "X). During wildfire season they post deployments of NWS Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) to wildfires for what is typically a two week deployment. The also post news of IMETs who have completed their IMET training, IMET retirements, and occasional posts about what IMETs do along.
For the last few weeks, I have noted the deployments of IMETs to various wildfires, on their Facebook page but I think that I have missed some, happens. I am not going even try to list them all. To give you a sampling of IMET deployments I will list deployments since Sunday, June 23rd. For each deployment the first link is to the NWS IMET Facbook post referencing the specific deployment. The second link is the wildfire on Inciweb. My notes are in italics.
One of the wildfire social media sites that I check out periodically is the Facebook page of the US National Weather Service IMET, they also have a page on Twitter, NWS IMET Operations. The US National Weather Service (NWS) has a nice Fire Weather webpage with links to fire weather information including National Weather Service fire weather outlooks, a forecast map and link to other fire information.
The video that I embedded above is from ABC15 Arizona about a Meteorologist in the NWS Flagstaff Weather Forecast office, Rickey, who is an IMET, "predicting weather: a day in the life of an incident meteorologist."
The IMET office posts about IMET deployments and other related news on these social media pages. I am not aware of any IMET deployments, but it is always possible that I have missed something. The NWS has a nice article called "Eyes on the Sky: A Day in the Life of an Incident Meteorologist (IMET) on the Front Lines of a Wildfire." This article has been around for a couple of years or so, and I find it very useful as a refresher about what IMETs do, here is an excerpt introducing what IMETs do and why:
Meteorologists from NWS work on the front lines to support agencies who prevent and fight wildfires, collaborating closely with state and local fire control agencies, as well as the Forest Service and other federal agencies.Wildfires are not weather. However, weather conditions influence how easily a fire may start, how quickly it spreads and where the fire (and smoke) will move. Lightning strikes in dry areas are a common cause of these fires.Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) help keep the fire crews safe by enabling responders to plan operations taking into account one of the most variable aspects of the incident — the weather. They are NWS Forecasters who have been specially trained and certified to provide weather support at a fire location.IMETs keep firefighters safe by interpreting weather information, assessing its effect on the fire and communicating it to fire crews. Once on-site, IMETs become key members of the incident command teams and provide continuous meteorological support for the duration of the incident.
It is late May and according to the US National Weather Service Incident Meteorologist (IMETs) Office (see their Facebook post that I have embedded below), "we are running below the 10-year average for both wildfires and acres burned so far this year (2023)". Now it is still early in the wildfire season in much of the western United States and many areas saw winter rainfall much above normal. While the rain was welcome leading to growth of vegetation, I am concerned that if the weather pattern changes to a stretch of dry weather that conditions will be ripe for increased fire danger. Of course, I am neither a Meteorologist nor am a wildland firefighter, but am someone who is concerned.
Before I get to the IMETs, I checked out the latest National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued on May 1st by Predictive Services at the National Interagency Fire Center, they say in part:
Significant fire activity continued to increase across the Southern, Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Eastern Areas in April, but a portion of the Southern Area observed a decrease in significant fire activity at the end of the month due to green-up. Significant fire activity remained minimal elsewhere across the West and Alaska. Green-up is well underway across much of the West, but fuel moistures are decreasing across the lower elevations of the Southwest and portions of southern California. Year-to-date acres burned for the US is 55% of the 10-year average, with a below average number of fires, nearly 83% of average.
Precipitation decreased significantly across much of the southwestern US in April, with below normal precipitation extending through the Mid-Mississippi Valley into the Mid-Atlantic. Above normal precipitation was confined to the Northwest, portions of the Texas coast, and Great Lakes. Below normal temperatures were widespread across the West, and despite the below average precipitation, little snowmelt occurred, with record or near record snow water equivalent (SWE) values remaining in the Sierra, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Temperatures were above normal in Florida and the Northeast. Drought continued to improve across most of the West, but drought emerged or worsened in Florida and the Mid-Atlantic into southern New England, while severe and extreme drought continued on portions of the southern and central Plains. (accessed on May 24, 2023 from National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued on May 1st issued by Predictive Services of the National Interagency Fire Center).
The main page of Predictive Services at the National Interagency Fire Center may be found here where you can access weekly, monthly and seasonal fire weather outlooks; fuels and fire danger; weather products; and intelligence.
While it is not yet a busy wildfire season for the IMETs, they have been involved in a few missions, at least one was to help out with at least one prescribed burn in Colorado. In addition to deployments to North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. See their Facebook below for more details. I know that the IMETs are a national resource and are available for deployment anywhere in the U.S. and have helped out over seas in years past (e.g. in Australia in December 2019 and again on January 13th 2020 and at least once more during Australias's 2019-20 wildfire season on January 29th 2020. IMETs save lives! Thanks to all IMETs for your current and upcoming service to help wildland firefighters stay safe, deployments may last as long as two weeks and sometimes more than one IMET is deployed to a wildfire.
The annual training for NWS Incident Meteorologists (IMET) aka the Continuity of Excellence Exercise continued in Boise Idaho this week, see my March 15th article for more information.
Thanks to the IMET Operations Office and Mike Archers Wildfire News of the Day for sharing an article from KTVB in Boise Idaho about the annual IMET Continuity of Excellence Exercise. IMETs save lives!
Learn more about the IMET Continuity of Excellence Exercise... https://t.co/YSTd72vEj4
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) March 16, 2023
The National Weather Service (NWS) Incident Meteorologist (IMET) Operations Office is conducting their annual IMET Continuity of Excellence Exercise in Boise Idaho, annual training for IMETs. Wondering what an IMET does? According to this 2021 article on WeatherNation:
The iMet's main responsibility is to provide hyper-localized forecasts to emergency managers and first responders. Incident Meteorologists, like their National Weather Service counterparts, are using many tools according to (IMET) Mike (Ottenweller): "high resolution models, satellite, radar, whatever it is that we have, we take advantage of it, really dial it in.
Some of you might be interested in my June 2021 post "About IMETs and other fire weather services from the NWS" where I shared a 22 minute video from the National Weather Service and the Weather Channel called Forecast Earth, Forecast the Inferno. The video is worth the time!
As I write this The IMET Continuity of Excellence Exercise is being held in person in Boise, Idaho with remote training being held next week (the week of March 20th).
Monday was Trainee Day at the IMET Continuity of Excellence Exercise in Boise!
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) March 14, 2023
We welcome 1/3 of our certified IMETs for the rest of the week starting on Tuesday, and will have remote training for the remaining 2/3 of the IMETs next week.
NOAA/NWS photo by Robert Hyatt pic.twitter.com/r99tdUXJdx
Tuesday at the IMET Continuity of Excellence Exercise included several interactive sessions about current and future technologies. We also practiced ways to better coordinate our weather forecasts while working to support incident management teams at wildfires. pic.twitter.com/8L795T5LUt
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) March 15, 2023
As you can see from the Facebook post from the NWS IMET Operations Office that I embedded above, on September 27th, there were 10 IMETs deployed nationwide. I would imagine that since that time some of those IMETs that were deployed on September 27th have finished their deployment and returned home. Also of note is that the National Wildland Fire Preparedness level was lowered to 2 on September 27th. As I write this, to the best of my knowledge the Preparedness Level remains at 2, even so that does not mean that the worst of the fire season is over, one never knows what might happen. While IMET deployments have decreased, IMTs continue to be deployed to wildfires. Since September 27th four IMETs have been deployed.
. @NWSReno IMET en route to #MooseFire located 17 miles N of Salmon, ID #IDwx #IDFires @NWSPocatello @salmonchallisnf https://t.co/9M4o3ybV9Y pic.twitter.com/P7oNlcxFhn
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) September 30, 2022
. @NWSAnchorage IMET en route to #MosquitoFire located 20 miles S of Emigrant Gap, CA #CAwx #CAFires @NWSSacramento @Tahoe_NF https://t.co/sozZbFGw2P pic.twitter.com/60wNn8NHzF
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) October 3, 2022
. @NWSMoreheadCity IMET en route to #GoatRocksFire located 8 miles E of Packwood, WA #WAwx #WAFires @NWSSeattle @GPNF https://t.co/4QvNgdG8tn pic.twitter.com/q9GSwJCyn0
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) October 4, 2022
. @NWSPortland IMET en route to #BoltCreekFire located 2 miles N of Skykomish, WA #WAwx #WAFires @NWSSeattle @waDNR_fire @MtBakerSnoNF https://t.co/uxi2yVQOsM
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) October 5, 2022
I have a deep respect for the work that National Weather Service specially trained Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) do. IMETs are deployed for up to two weeks to provide weather forecasts specific to a wildfire. If you are like me, and I believe that some of you are, then you are wondering what it is like for an IMET on the fire line this summer. This photo story from NOAA called "Fighting Fire with Forecasts" provides an answer. Enjoy! IMETs save lives. If you have trouble accessing the tweet from the NWS IMET Operations or prefer not to access Twitter, here is the direct link to the NOAA photo story "Fighting Fire with Forecasts". Plan on spending some time with the photo story, there are several photos and a couple of videos.
Ever wonder what life as an IMET is like? Here's a good summary of life on the fire line for IMETs this summer helping our land management agency partners. @NIFC_Fire @NWS #WeatherReadyNation #ClimateReadyNation #Wildfire https://t.co/IrAvXUb0Ge
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) September 20, 2022
As you may know, I follow the NWS IMET Operations office on Twitter. You should not need an account on Twitter to view the posts from IMET Operations. In the last few days, they have made a couple of posts that they call "Meet our IMETs". I thought that some of you might want to read more about these IMETs. Steve Fano
Meet our IMETs:
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) August 11, 2022
Meet @NWSFortWorth Incident Meteorologist Steve Fano. While he's been on 8 missions, one of his most memorable was the 2017 Brian Head fire in UT. He got an undergrad degree at @msudenver, and a masters degree at @TexasTech.
Steve is currently on a mission in TX! pic.twitter.com/sksUHmLcCh
and Dan Borsum.
Meet our IMETs:
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) August 16, 2022
Meet @NWSBillings Incident Meteorologist Dan Borsum. Dan has been an IMET for 20 years and is a double ace at 62 missions. He's a true servant leader of our program. Dan went to college @penn_state pic.twitter.com/rHP5AcPF7Y
Thanks to Steve Fano and Dan Borsum for your work as an IMET when you are deployed to wildfires to provide site specific forecasts those fighting the wildfires. IMETs save lives.
I learned about the video where you will see IMET Blaine Breitreter currently assigned to the Calf Canyon Fire (341,735 acres burned at 98% containment) in the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico. Mr Breireter is giving a weather update for August 10th on meteorological conditions that the firefighters would be facing that day. He also does a little teaching in this video which is why I am sharing this video with you. Thanks Mr. Brietreter for the video and for an opportunity to learn more about what IMETs do on wildfires. Thanks for your service and stay safe.
IMETs save lives!
Direct link to video on YouTube from the Calf Canyon & Hermits Peak Fire
On July 29, 1928, Leslie G. Gray whom I believe was with the Weather Bureau's San Francisco office was the first Incident Meteorologist to be deployed to the Miller Canyon Fire in the Santa Barbara National Forest. Congratulations to @NWS_IMET_OPS on 24 years of service.
The @NWS Incident Meteorologist program celebrates its 94th Anniversary of providing on site weather support to America’s wildland firefighting efforts!
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) July 29, 2022
On July 29, 1928, Leslie G. Gray went on the first IMET mission to the Miller Canyon Fire in California. #FireWX
1/4 pic.twitter.com/dGoruspzxO
The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) Incident Meteorologist program celebrates its 94th Anniversary of providing on site weather support to America’s wildland firefighting efforts!
— NWS IMET Operations (@NWS_IMET_OPS) July 29, 2022
Although the technology changes, the mission remains the same!
(July 29, 1928 - current)
4/4 pic.twitter.com/IOTtMBP3WY
