The National Weather Service is testing a new fire tracking and warning system that could help save lives when wildfires hit, The Washington Post reported.
The publication explained that the system relies on real-time satellite data from wildfires and could offer earlier warnings for residents. Meteorologists monitor this data and notify fire analysts if the tool discovers a potentially serious blaze. If the local fire agency considers it a threat, they will issue a warning and broadcast the information about the fire's location and movement to the public and emergency officials.
So far, the system has only been used in Texas and Oklahoma — 20 fire warnings were sent as wildfires ripped through these states in February 2024 — but the NWS hopes to expand it nationwide. However, this could prove challenging in fire-prone areas of the West along with eastern states because of differences in terrain, vegetation, and population density.
Nonetheless, improvements in fire warning systems are critical as we face the consequences of an overheating planet.
Research has predicted that the number of days with "high" wildfire danger will more than double by 2100, and even areas that currently do not experience wildfires will have to prepare for this threat in the future.
This is not the only recent advancement in fire monitoring. For instance, Austin, Texas, is now using an artificial intelligence tool to help enhance its future wildfire detection and response. Plus, researchers at Ohio State University are testing a new tool called Synthetic Aperture Radar, which could help first responders combat wildfires and stop them from spreading out of control.
As for the new system being tested by NWS, Zach Tolby, director and lead scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (the agency that manages NWS) Fire Weather Testbed, told the Post, "From my own experience as a Weather Service forecaster, I would want to have an option of being able to alert people. In the past, we just didn't have the right product."
"The tools and concepts we evaluated will turn our meteorologists into scientific first responders in partnership with fire, land and emergency agencies," Todd Lindley, NWS Science and Operations Officer for Norman, Oklahoma, said in a statement. "These tools will help us provide timely and life-saving warnings of particularly dangerous wildfires."
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