Scattered Severe Thunderstorms Across the Northern Plains; Fire Weather Concerns in the Western U.S.

Scattered severe thunderstorms are forecast across central and eastern North Dakota, as well as far northwest Minnesota Saturday (Slight Risk level 2 of 5). Damaging wind gusts are the primary threat. Elevated to critical fire weather conditions will persist through the weekend across the Western U.S. Isolated dry thunderstorms could lead to new fire starts over portions of the northern Rockies. Read More >

Implementing Improved Fire Weather Zone Coverage for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Effective Thursday August 6, 2015 at 800 AM Atlantic Standard Time (AST) or 1200 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the National Weather Service Forecast Office (WFO) in San Juan, Puerto Rico will adjust its current fire weather zones for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This adjustment will provide improved fire weather warning and forecast services for PR and the USVI. The NWS Weather Forecast Office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, will reconfigure the fire weather forecast zones for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to align with the boundaries of the National Fire Danger Rating Areas. Specifically, fire weather zone PRZ014 was split into two zones, PRZ014 Southeast Coastal Plains and PRZ027 Southwest Coastal Plains and Mona Island.

Table 1: WFO San Juan products affected by the fire weather zone changes effective August 6, 2015.

PRODUCT NAME	WMO HEADING	AWIPS ID
FIRE WEATHER PLANNING FORECAST	FNCA52 TJSJ	FWFSJU
FIRE WEATHER WATCH/RED FLAG WARNING	WWCA82 TJSJ	RFWSJU
RANGELAND/GRASSLAND FIRE DANGER STATEMENT	FNCA52 TJSJ	RFDSJU

Customers must reprogram hardware and software to continue processing products in Table 1.

WFO San Juan Fire Weather Zones prior to August 6, 2015 (Current)

WFO San Juan Fire Weather Zones effective August 6, 2015

An updated zone map shapefile containing the new boundaries for these and other fire weather zones is available for download at: Fire Weather Forecast_Zones

For questions about these changes, please contact:

Gary Votaw Paul Witsaman

Fire Weather Program Leader Regional Fire Weather Program Manager

NWS San Juan NWS SRH

(787) 253-4586 X 242 (817) 978-1100 X 116

Email: Email: