Important! For scenarios where inputs should represent the “worst case scenario” or “problem fire” conditions, such as using LBP to gauge fuel treatment effectiveness, integrated hazard and/or wildfire risk, potential sources of wind and fuel moisture data could include:
- Initial fuel moistures calculated in using the Weather Station input and historic weather from the past 10 to 20 years representing 90-97th percentile conditions.
- Initial fuel moistures from a known ‘problem fire’ on a day of maximal growth.
- Predefined initial fuel moistures for very dry or dry conditions (Scott and Burgan 2005) in combination with known or predicted worst case scenario wind speed and wind direction.
The recommended and simplest option to estimate fuel moistures is with the most recent data available is to use the Weather Station input in IFTDSS and select a representative weather station to pull data from.
Other options can help you determine fuel moistures for use in IFTDSS include:
- Referring to Fuel Moisture Tables
- Determining live, dead, and foliar moisture via IFTDSS Automatic 97th Percentile Landscape Fire Behavior (Auto97th) Report
- Determining fuel moisture from field measurements outlined in the Fire Behavior Field Reference Guide's section on fuel moisture.
Important! Auto-97th RAWS data is only currently available for the contiguous United States and Alaska with weather data up to 2016.
