Fire Weather Alert System Mobile App (FWAS): Realtime data could save lives on the fireline

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While inconvenient for your average hiker or boater, major shifts in the weather can be deadly for firefighters. Longer and more intense fire seasons make accurate and timely weather predictions crucial to firefighter safety. To answer this need, the Fire Weather Alert System (FWAS) was developed by Jason Forthofer, Research Mechanical Engineer, and Natalie Wagenbrenner, Research Meteorologist, both from the Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. The FWAS is a mobile app that gathers weather data from many sources into a single convenient space and provides firefighters with individualized, easy-to-use, and timely weather alerts on their phones.