Changes to the Fire Weather Forecast Zones in Southeast South Dakota and extreme Northeast Nebraska

Changes to the boundaries of Fire Weather Forecast Zones in southeast South Dakota and extreme northeast Nebraska,
served by National Weather Service Forecast Office Sioux Falls SD, effective November 10, 2020 (***note change in date)

Overview

***DATE CHANGE*** Effective November 10, 2020 (alternate date November 17, 2020), the National Weather Service forecast office in Sioux Falls, SD (FSD) will modify fire weather zone boundaries across southeast South Dakota and extreme northeast Nebraska. The purpose of this change is to better meet the needs of fire partners and improve fire weather support, including improved watch, warning, and forecast products. The new fire weather forecast zone boundaries will align with county boundaries. These changes were necessary to create more detailed fire weather forecasts by reducing the size of the fire zones and resultant forecast area.

The change in fire zone boundaries will require new fire weather zone numbers. Details of these zone number changes are listed in the table below:

Current Fire Zone Numbers	Future Fire Zone Numbers (October/November, 2020)

SDZ255 - Lower Brule/Lake Andes	SDZ038 - Beadle
SDZ256 - Middle James Valley	SDZ039 - Kingsbury
SDZ257 - Middle Big Sioux Valley	SDZ040 - Brookings
SDZ258 - Lower James/Lower Big Sioux Valleys	SDZ050 - Gregory
NEZ249 - Extreme Northeast Nebraska	SDZ052 - Jerauld
	SDZ053 - Sanborn
	SDZ054 - Miner
	SDZ055 - Lake
	SDZ056 - Moody
	SDZ057 - Brule
	SDZ058 - Aurora
	SDZ059 - Davison
	SDZ060 - Hanson
	SDZ061 - McCook
	SDZ062 - Minnehaha
	SDZ063 - Charles Mix
	SDZ064 - Douglas
	SDZ065 - Hutchinson
	SDZ066 - Turner
	SDZ067 - Lincoln
	SDZ068 - Bon Homme
	SDZ069 - Yankton
	SDZ070 - Clay
	SDZ071 - Union
	NEZ013 - Dixon
	NEZ014 - Dakota

Maps

Graphical descriptions of the old and new fire weather zones are available below:

Current Fire Weather Zones

Future Fire Weather Zones in October/November, 2020

Text Products

NWS watch, warning, and forecast products affected by these changes are:

NWS Sioux Falls Products	WMO Heading	AWIPS ID
Fire Weather Watch	WWUS83 KFSD	RFWFSD
Red Flag Warning	WWUS83 KFSD	RFWFSD
Fire Weather Planning Forecast	FNUS53 KFSD	FWFFSD

NWS partners and users will need to make necessary changes to their communications systems to accommodate these fire weather forecast zone changes. A shapefile of the new fire weather forecast zones for NWS FSD is online at: https://www.weather.gov/gis/FireZones

For more information, please contact:

Kyle Weisser - Fire Weather Program Manager
26 West Weather Lane
Sioux Falls, SD 57104
605-330-4247
kyle.weisser@noaa.gov

National Service Change Notices are online at: http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

Updated Service Change Notice issued Thursday, October 29, 2020
(Original Service Chance Notice issued Wednesday, August 12, 2020)