NOAA Fire Weather Testbed Launches First In-Person Evaluation Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Wildland fire presents complex, time-sensitive, and uncertain decision spaces wherein fire and emergency management agencies use various fire weather–related information sources to assess their interplay with other aspects of the fire environment, all while considering local context, response capacity, and identified risks to life and property. The National Weather Service (NWS) and other purveyors of fire weather–related information support emergency and land management partners by providing observations, models, tools, and workflows that enhance impact-based decision support services (IDSS) before, during, and following wildland fires. To support innovation and address growing needs in the fire weather space, an operations-to-research-to-operations testbed focused on wildland fire weather from physical and social science perspectives is crucial to address the challenges of the fire environment (weather, fuels, and topography) and to protect critical assets. In response, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established the Fire Weather Testbed (FWT) at NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) in Boulder, Colorado, in 2023, with support of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the 2022 Disaster Relief Supplemental Act, and congressionally allocated base funding (https://gsl.noaa.gov/fire-wx/fire-weather-testbed). The FWT provides opportunities for both coordinated and disparate groups with the shared mission of fire management to collaboratively assess emergent fire weather–related products and services.