Weather

Subject Areas > Weather > Home

PLEASE NOTE! FRAMES has a new URL: www.frames.gov

Due to a reorganization of programs at USGS, after Jan. 15, 2012, old urls that contain http://frames.nbii.gov will break, so if you have bookmarked FRAMES, or shared FRAMES urls with others, please update them. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Weather

The state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure. (National Weather Service/Fire Research And Management Exchange System)

Background: Weather is the state of the atmosphere and is often described in terms of temperature, humidity, stability, pressure, wind speed and direction, clouds and precipitation. The interaction of these weather elements control many aspects of fire behavior.

Fire weather constitutes examining the current state of the atmosphere between the surface and 5 to 10 miles above the surface and how this state will change and impact fires. When knowledge of fire weather is combined with information on fuels and topography, assessments of fire danger and potential fire behavior are possible. Both the fire-control plan, in the case of wildfire, and the burning plan, in the case of prescribed fire, must be based on past and expected weather conditions.

*Exerpt From: Kennard, D.K./[Schroder and Buck, 1970]. 2005. Fire Weather. In: The Forest Encyclopedia Network. http://www.forestencyclopedia.net, Encyclopedia Identification: 6377. [Date accessed: July 18, 2005].

Notices for Weather