Public Information Statement
Issued by NWS National HQ
Issued by NWS National HQ
449 NOUS41 KWBC 271620 PNSWSH Service Change Notice 24-68 National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD 1220 PM EDT Thu Jun 27 2024 To: Subscribers: -NOAA Weather Wire Service -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network -NOAAPort Other NWS Partners, Users and Employees From: Stephen W. Bieda III, Ph.D., Chief Severe, Fire, Public, and Winter Weather Services Branch Subject: Changes to Fire Weather Forecast Zones for WFO Pendleton, OR: Effective September 10, 2024 Effective Tuesday, September 10, 2024, at 2:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), 2100 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS Weather Forecast Office in Pendleton, OR (PDT) will change Fire Weather Forecast Zones encompassing northeast Oregon. After this change, all forecasts and related products will use the new zone numbers and names shown below. If September 10, 2024 is declared a Critical Weather Day, this implementation will be postponed to September 11, 2024 at 2100 UTC. These changes are intended to provide more consistency across fire weather and fire danger rating areas to benefit the fire community and decision makers.Nested fire weather zones were developed within Northeast Oregon`s fire danger rating areas. This will allow for increased flexibility and improved accuracy of forecast, fire weather watches and red flag warnings within the respective fire weather programs. Four current zones will be realigned and converted into eight separate zones. These new zones are being divided to optimize issuance of hazard products for conditions that vary significantly across Northeast Oregon`s geographic area. The new zones are listed in Table 2. Table 1. Universal Geographic Codes (UGCs): Current Fire Weather Forecast Zone Name ---------------------------------- OR642: Southern Blue and Strawberry Mountains OR643: Northern Blue Mountains of Oregon OR644: Central Blue Mountains OR645: Wallowa District Table 2. UGC: New Fire Weather Forecast Zone Name -------------------------------------------------- OR691: Western Forested Blue Mountains OR692: Northern Blue Mountains of Oregon OR693: Canyon Grasslands of Wallowa County OR694: Grande Ronde Valley of Oregon OR695: Eagle Cap Wilderness OR696: John Day Valley OR697: Central Blue Mountains OR698: Southern Blue Mountains Table 3. NWS Products Affected by the WFO Pendleton, OR Fire Weather Forecast Zone Changes Product Name WMO Heading AWIPS ID ------------- ----------- -------- Fire Weather Forecast FNUS56 KPDT FWFPDT Fire Weather Message WWUS86 KPDT RFWPDT NWS partners and users will need to make necessary changes to their communications systems to accommodate these weather forecast zone changes. Preliminary shapefiles for fire weather forecast zones are available online at: https://www.weather.gov/gis/FireZones Final versions of these shapefiles will be available on August 26, 2024. A graphical depiction of this change is online at: https://www.weather.gov/pdt/2024FWZChange For more information, please contact: Mary Wister Fire Weather Program Leader NWS Pendleton, OR mary.wister@noaa.gov 541-276-8134 or Michael Vescio Meteorologist-in-Charge NWS Pendleton, OR michael.vescio@noaa.gov 541-276-4493 National Service Change Notices are online at: https://www.weather.gov/notification/