Add Weather and Fuel Moisture From FEMS

Important! This topic is currently under development. Additional help will be added here in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience.

The Weather Station input has options to manually enter values (for wind, fuel moisture, and optional fuel moisture conditioning), or apply values from the Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) nearest to your landscape, or a RAWS of your choosing. Weather station values are derived from the Fire Environment Mapping System (FEMS).

Weather Station option contains radio boxes for manually entering wind and fuel moisture inputs, applying values based on the weather station closest to the landscape, or applying values from a weather station of your choosing.

Each Weather Station selection is described in a section below, these include:

Manually enter values

Manually entering values leaves all model input fields blank, you fill each field based on inputs of your choosing. This is the default.

Use closest station to my landscape

Selecting the Use closest station to my landscape option automatically selects a RAWS by:

  1. Identifying the center of the landscape extent.
  2. Calculating the distance from the center to the nearest RAWS using a horizontal/vertical (elevation) algorithm.
  3. Ranking the stations and selecting the station which is the “closest” and has weather data requisite for running the model.

Weather station information including name, observation dates, and other metadata are displayed. This includes the first and last observation dates, visible by selecting More Details in the bottom left.

To continue with the selected RAWS, select Apply Weather to further refine the data you need:

Weather station details including first and last observation dates

Next, you will be prompted to select RAWS data based upon source, severity, wind and other (advanced) options. These are described in the sections below.

Weather source

  • Typical severe weather (from years of record). Available dates depend on the weather station and are listed in weather station details. After selecting this option you are prompted to specify severity.

  • A specific date. This includes further options for using data for a specific hour of the day (in local station time), or the day's most extreme reading. After selecting this option you are not prompted to specify severity.

Severity

Severity options are calculated based upon the available years of station data, covering the period of time from 1300-1700 local station time, unless further refined under the Advanced Options. Severity is expressed in percentiles and choices include:

  • 97th percentile (extreme)

  • 90th percentile (very high)

  • 80th percentile (high)

  • 50th percentile (typical)

  • A percentile of your choosing

Wind

Wind choices include:

  • Average winds - Wind speed averaged over 10 minutes of each hour.

    The average windspeed from at least 600 measurements (at least one per second) taken within the 10-minute window prior to the station's hourly transmission time.

  • Gust winds - The highest observed instantaneous wind speed in the previous hour.

    The highest observed wind speed from among at least 720 observations (at least once every 5 seconds) taken in the hour prior to the station's hourly transmission time.

Advanced

Advanced options include choices to further refine the weather selections by hours, years, and season.

  • Hours sampled

    • Afternoon (1300-1700 local station time)

    • A single hour (that you specify)

    • Custom hours (a specific range of hours you choose)

    • Each days most extreme reading (the most extreme hour of weather readings)

  • Years: a specific range of years.

  • Season window

    • From month/day to month/day. If these fields are left blank, all seasons will be included.

    To check your inputs, click Preview. Upon previewing, to use the values you've generated, select Apply in the bottom right.

    previewing will display all weather data before it is applied. The Apply button in the bottom right populates the model fields with that data.

    Any applied weather station values may be changed or edited manually. Models in which Weather Station data will list the station in the right hand metadata panel for the run.

    Tip: Specific filters such as date ranges, years, etc. are not captured in the right hand metadata panel. We recommend making of a not of these choices in the option notes field for your model.

Pick a specific station

Opting to Pick a specific station will display available stations in a dropdown list. RAWS distance from your landscape are shown in parentheses and stations are listed in ascending order starting with the closest.

Stations with no historical data are indicated with a "No historic data" label to the right of the station name.

drowpodwn list of raws station options available.

Weather station information including name, observation dates, and other metadata are displayed. This includes the first and last observation dates, visible by selecting More Details in the bottom left.

To continue with the selected RAWS, select Apply Weather to further refine the data you need:

Weather station details including first and last observation dates

Next, you will be prompted to select RAWS data based upon source, severity, wind and other (advanced) options. These are described in the sections below.

Weather source

  • Typical severe weather (from years of record). Available dates depend on the weather station and are listed in weather station details. After selecting this option you are prompted to specify severity.

  • A specific date. This includes further options for using data for a specific hour of the day (in local station time), or the day's most extreme reading. After selecting this option you are not prompted to specify severity.

Severity

Severity options are calculated based upon the available years of station data, covering the period of time from 1300-1700 local station time, unless further refined under the Advanced Options. Severity is expressed in percentiles and choices include:

  • 97th percentile (extreme)

  • 90th percentile (very high)

  • 80th percentile (high)

  • 50th percentile (typical)

  • A percentile of your choosing

Wind

Wind choices include:

  • Average winds - Wind speed averaged over 10 minutes of each hour.

    The average windspeed from at least 600 measurements (at least one per second) taken within the 10-minute window prior to the station's hourly transmission time.

  • Gust winds - The highest observed instantaneous wind speed in the previous hour.

    The highest observed wind speed from among at least 720 observations (at least once every 5 seconds) taken in the hour prior to the station's hourly transmission time.

Advanced

Advanced options include choices to further refine the weather selections by hours, years, and season.

  • Hours sampled

    • Afternoon (1300-1700 local station time)

    • A single hour (that you specify)

    • Custom hours (a specific range of hours you choose)

    • Each days most extreme reading (the most extreme hour of weather readings)

  • Years: a specific range of years.

  • Season window

    • From month/day to month/day. If these fields are left blank, all seasons will be included.

    To check your inputs, click Preview. Upon previewing, to use the values you've generated, select Apply in the bottom right.

    previewing will display all weather data before it is applied. The Apply button in the bottom right populates the model fields with that data.

    Any applied weather station values may be changed or edited manually. Models in which Weather Station data will list the station in the right hand metadata panel for the run.

    Tip: Specific filters such as date ranges, years, etc. are not captured in the right hand metadata panel. We recommend making of a not of these choices in the option notes field for your model.