National Weather Service and Fire Departments Working Together to Protect the Public

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In Southern California, fire departments and the National Weather Service have been working together to be able to be prepared for whatever the weather might bring. Now, they have brought the media into the mix to make sure they all have a good working relationship and are able to understand each other's capabilities and needs.

From the fire service standpoint, Todd Edwards of the Montecito Fire Protection District explains, "It's really important for each of the media networks, to really contact in with our Public Information Officers within the fire districts and so we're on the same page getting that message out to the public especially in these large fires."

Agencies have noticed some confusion by the public between Red Flag Warnings, which are issued by the National Weather Service and Red Flag Alerts, that are issued by fire agencies. Viewers will see a televised alert and think it covers an entire county when it may only cover a portion of that area.

"Our Red Flag Warnings are a little more broad brush because we do issue them by a bigger zone area. And then the Red Flag Alerts are definitely a city decision, maybe a city fire department decides they need something for their local area," explained Eric Boldt a Warning Coordination Meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Oxnard, California.

That is why it is so important for the media to get it right because they have the ear of hundreds of thousands of people, and they need to make sure to relay the correct information.

Before that information goes out to the public, it has to get to the fire department and that is the job of Predictive Services. They offer products like their 7-day Fire Potential Outlooks as Tom Rolinski of the USFS Predictive Services explains, "They may look at our product and see that maybe three days from now we're looking at a critical fire weather situation that would elevate our large fire potential into the high category. So they would deploy or pre-position resources in those areas."

After a fire is also a time for concern for debris flows. The National Weather Service (NWS) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have joined together to monitor where debris flows may occur and to alert emergency officials and the public to the hazards so heavy equipment can be put into place in anticipation of a heavy rain event.

That happened just last week when a series of storms hit Southern California and threatened more than 1,000 residences around the Station Fire burn area. That area is a prime example of the type of problems that could happen because the fire burned recently and very intensely. "The steeper the slope, the hotter the fire, the more recent the fire, the more likely it is that we may get debris flows," explained Mark Jackson a  Meteorologist in Charge with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.

The area is experiencing more rain than usual because of a climate effect called El Nino where warmer ocean currents bring more rain to the area. "It's difficult to tell at this stage really how much rainfall will result from that El Nino as far as the whole season goes. But, all it takes is one event," Jackson said.

In the middle of November, an unexpected downpour caused a mud and debris flow in a La Canada Flintridge neighborhood so officials took no chances with the January storm evacuating homes in many communities. No homes were damaged that time; however, the rainy season is not over so officials will continue to communicate with each other and be vigilant clearing the debris basins and alerting the public. 

The latest weather information for any part of the country is always available at www.weather.gov.



Author:Barbara Brooks - FDNNTV.com