In this Section:

	Background
	Project Overview
	Project Components:
	Fire History & Climate
	Fire Management & Policy
	Fire-Climate Workshops
	References
	Related Links
	Contacts

Stay Informed:
Interested in fire and climate? More information is available on the National Seasonal Assessment Workshops (NSAW).

Research and Products:
Fire Research

Fire-Climate Workshops

Overview | Research Methods | Results

Overview

Beginning with a seminal workshop in 2000, organized by CLIMAS and University of Arizona scientists, CLIMAS has been a leader in the process of bridging the worlds of fire managers and researchers. The initial workshop in 2000 spawned two workshops in 2001: Fire and Climate in the Southwest and Fire and Climate 2001 in the West. The success of these meetings led to the 2002 Fire in the West workshop. These annual workshops brought fire managers, applied fire researchers, and climate forecasters together to exchange information and ideas. This process has evolved into a partnership to evaluate the potential for significant wildland fire activity and has become institutionalized in the form of the National Seasonal Assessment Workshops.

The National Seasonal Assessment Workshops (NSAW) are a process developed by a partnership between CLIMAS, the National Interagency Coordination Center’s Predictive Services (NICC), and the Program for Climate, Ecosystem and Fire Applications (CEFA) at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. The impetus for the partnership and associated workshops is to improve information available to fire management decision makers for allocation of firefighting resources at local, regional, and national scales. The workshop collaboration is grounded in a commitment to sustained interaction between partnering institutions, equality in partnership, and clear partnership responsibilities.

In collaboration with 11 Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACCs), NOAA Climate Prediction Center, California Applications Program RISA, Western Water Assessment RISA, Southeast Climate Consortium RISA, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Experimental Climate Prediction Center, and others, the NSAWs bring together fire meteorologists, fire behavior analysts, fuel specialists, fire managers, climate forecasters, and climate researchers for a focused exchange of ideas and work sessions. The workshop participants produce pre-season fire potential outlooks for the eastern half of the U.S. (in January each year), and the western half of the U.S. plus Alaska (in late March or early April each year).

Publications from both the NSAW conferences as well as the 2000-2002 predecessors are available at http://www.climas.arizona.edu/research/fire/workshop_proceedings.html.

Research Methods

We used written surveys and suggestions from breakout group discussions to garner information on the effectiveness of the initial fire-climate workshops (2000–2002). NSAW workshops have been collaboratively planned by members from CLIMAS, NICC, and CEFA, based on feedback from the previous year’s workshop participants. The NOAA Climate Services Division has also provided guidance. CLIMAS is planning a combined web-based and telephone survey of participants and their clients in order to gauge the effectiveness of the NSAWs in addressing fire management and resource allocation needs.

Results

NSAW continues to be a process valued by national- and regional-level fire managers. Climate forecasts and other climate information are now routinely used by the Predictive Services Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACCs) in monthly and seasonal fire potential outlooks.

In recent years, the partners and collaborators have added climate variability and forecasting training sessions to the NSAWs. In 2006, the partners developed an experimental North American Seasonal Assessment Workshop, with participation from climate and fire specialists in Mexico and Canada.

The following summary tables contain information regarding fire management research and information needs:

Table 1: Selected recommendations and needs
Table 2: Responses to questions about "what makes a good climate forecast?"
Table 3: Fire survey responses to the question, "In what aspect of decision making did you use seasonal climate forecasts?"