National Weather Service Office in Nashville, Tennessee

Announces Fire Weather Support Realignment-Zone Changes

WHAT: WFO Nashville (OHX) forecasts most of Middle TN while WFO Morristown (MRX) forecasts for all of East TN. WFO Nashville will be taking over fire weather responsibility for Franklin, Coffee, Grundy, and Van Buren Counties from WFO Morristown. Also, WFO Nashville (OHX) and Morristown (MRX) will be transitioning to county-based fire weather zones.

WHY: Franklin, Coffee, Grundy, and Van Buren Counties are inside of the Nashville (OHX) forecast area of responsibility and are currently the responsibility of WFO Morristown (MRX). When SPOT requests come in for these counties our partners might not be getting the most accurate forecast due to the SPOTs falling outside of WFO Morristown's (MRX) normal forecast domain. The warning forecast office in Nashville has agreed to take over fire weather responsibilities for the aforementioned counties. Additionally, WFO Nashville's (OHX) current fire weather zones are broken up into 4 permanent groups. WFO Nashville (OHX)  will transition to county-based fire weather zones in order to provide a more accurate and detailed forecast for their fire weather community. By moving to county-based zones MRX will have the ability to adjust zone groupings dependent upon expected weather conditions, the same way they produce the Zone Forecast Product. This will allow for a more accurate fire weather zone forecast which will serve as a better decision aid for WFO Nashville (OHX) partners. 

WHERE: These changes will effect both WFO Nashville's (OHX) and Morristown's (MRX) fire weather responsibility boundaries.

WHEN: The zone and realignment implementation is scheduled for Tuesday March 5th, 2019.

IS THIS NORMAL? Yes, WFO Nashville (OHX) and WFO Morristown (MRX) are two of the few offices east of the Mississippi that do not have county-based fire weather zones. This transition to county-based zones will match up with the majority of other National Weather Service (NWS) offices.  Lastly, the realignment of responsibility between WFO Nashville (OHX) and WFO Morristown (MRX) will prove to be beneficial for fire weather partners because they will receive a more accurate fire weather forecast.  More Details: The image below will help to visualize the changes described above.