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OPERATIONAL FDR IN SOUTH AFRICALOWVELD FIRE DANGER RATING SYSTEM

Presented By:

Chris de Bruno Austin

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CONTENTS

• The FDR System• Weather Station• Weather Station Placement• FDR and Fire Management Activities• Data Handling• WINWIS• Maintenance and Damage Prevention• Data Logging and Retrieval Methods

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LOWVELD FIRE DANGER RATING SYSTEM

• The system has been developed from the McArthur grassland Model• The system was first used in the 1970s in Rhodesia and was further developed in South Africa from the late 1980s• Working on Fire Supplies Daily Fire Danger Indexes and forecasted indexes to Contributing Land Owners covering 3 million ha.

The South African Weather Service provides early warning to the rest of the Country sing the USA NFDRS

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WEATHER STATIONS

Working on Fire:

• Davies Vantage Pro Automatic Weather Station with PC Link (Software)

• Total 12 weather stations

• Total area covered 3 million ha

• We assume that all the Fine Fuels (Grass) are fully Cured as of the 1st May

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WHEATHER STATION PLACEMENT

1. The stations are placed along the Escarpment in the path of theprogression of the prevailing weather system enabling tracking of the movement of the system

2. Placed in a grid between 40 – 50 km apart

3. Stations are placed on the Escarpment at 6 500 ft- Mid Veld areas- Low Veld areas

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FIRE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

The following Fire Management Activities make use of the colour coded FDI Chart Describing Expected Fire Behavior

1. Initial Attack Responses2. Fire Suppression Standbys3. Readiness Alert4. Prescribed Burning Activities5. Fire Awareness Program

Fire Danger Rating System using Fire Danger Indices (FDI’s) as a Means for Selecting Suitable Burning Conditions

for Controlled Burning

Too dangerous and unsuitable for controlled burning.>3000EXTREMELY

DANGEROUS75-100REDRED

Suitable for controlled burning to:•control and/or prevent the encroachment of undesirable plants e.g. bush encroachment.

2000-3000VERY DANGEROUS60-74ORANGEORANGE

Suitable for controlled burning to:•Remove moribund and/or unpalatable grass material up to a maximum FDI of 55.

1001-2000DANGEROUS45-59YELLOWYELLOW

Suitable for controlled burning to:•Remove moribund and/or unpalatable grass material;•Construct burnt firebreaks.500-1000MODERATE20-44GREENGREEN

Too cold, humid or wet for controlled burning<500LOW0-19BLUEBLUE

CONTROLLED BURNINGFIRE INTENSITYkJ/s/mFIRE DANGERFDI

FIRE DANGER STAGES

Fire Suppression

Fire Awareness Program

DATA HANDLING• South Africa Cell Phone (Mobile) Service Provider

• This is done through 2 downloads per day •10h00 am Temp: RH: Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Barometric

Pressure & Rain Fall •14h00 pm Temp: RH: Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Barometric

Pressure

• Our weather is measured in the morning at 10H00 – this is to ensure that we have a more accurate indication of our expectant fire weather.

• Weather stations are programmed to display the average every 30minutes. These measurement takes place every 5 minutes. • We assume that all the Fine Fuels (Grass) are fully cured as of 1st May .

DATA HANDLING continued

• WINWIS System (Windows Weather Information System)

• This software allows for real-time 14h00 forecasting on a daily basis• Our private Weather forecasting service provider supplies a 5 day forecast which we supply to our clients• Weather is sent to the client daily at 10h00 and 14h00 via mobile text, fax and email

• FDI can also be calculated manually using a Hand Held Weather Measuring Device (Kestrel)

WINWIS

• Used to calculate the Fire Danger Index

• Used to forecast the FDI (daily and weekly)

• Used to measure the accuracy of the forecast against real time data

• It uses only 5 components to forecast

D A I L Y F O R E C A S T R E P O R T

M p u m a la n g a P R O V IN C E - L o w v e ld & E s c a r p m e n t A R E A1 0 h 3 0 F O R E C A S T F O R 1 4 H 0 0 W e d n e s d a y 3 1 O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7

1 4 H 0 0 F D I F O R E C A S T 1 5 B lu eT o d a y 1 0 h 0 0 A c t u a l a v e r a g e o b s e r v a t io n s M p u m a la n g a P r o v in c eL o w v e ld & E s c a r p m e n tT e m p ( C ) H u m % W D ir W S p e e d ( k m /h ) B a r ( H p a ) R a in ( m m ) F D I1 0 9 4 N 1 0 1 0 3 0 1 1 0 B lu e

P r e v io u s 6 D a y 1 4 h 0 0 A c t u a l a v e r a g e o b s e r v a t io n s M p u m a la n g a P r o v in c e L o w v e ld & E s c a r p m e n t A r e aD a y T e m p ( C ) H u m % W D ir W S p e e d ( k m /h ) B a r ( H p a ) F D I N o F ir e sT u e 3 0 1 0 9 2 E S E 9 1 0 3 2 1 2 B lu e 0M o n 2 9 1 7 6 4 E N E 1 2 1 0 2 2 3 5 G r e e n 1S u n 2 8 2 5 1 5 W S W 1 4 1 0 1 7 6 4 O r a n g e 7S a t 2 7 2 5 1 4 N N W 9 1 0 1 6 6 1 O r a n g e 5F r i 2 6 2 3 2 1 N N E 1 3 1 0 2 2 5 7 Y e lo w 2T h u 2 5 2 1 1 9 E N E 8 1 0 2 5 5 4 Y e l lo w 2

6 D a y 1 4 h 0 0 W e a th e r S e r v ic e F o r e c a s t M p u m a la n g a P r o v in c e L o w v e ld & E s c a r p m e n t A r e aD a y T e m p ( C ) H u m % W D ir W S p e e d ( k m /h ) B a r ( H p a ) F D I T e n d e n c y

W e d 3 1 2 0 5 5 N E 1 2 1 0 2 7 2 2 G r e e n

T h u 1 2 4 3 4 N E 1 5 1 0 2 0 4 2 G r e e n

F r i 2 1 8 7 0 N E 1 7 1 0 2 8 3 6 G r e e n

S a t 3 1 9 6 6 N E 1 5 1 0 2 7 3 2 G r e e n

S u n 4 2 6 3 4 S W 1 2 1 0 2 0 5 5 Y e l lo w

M o n 5 2 8 2 3 W 1 4 1 0 1 8 6 1 O r a n g e

C o m m e n tsF o r a n y a d d i t io n a l w e a th e r I n fo r m a t io n p le a s e s e e h t t p : / /w w w . n e t f o r . c o .z a

D A I L Y F O R E C A S T R E P O R T N o 1

MAINTENANCE & DAMAGE PREVENTION

We have a service agreement with a service provider that annually during the fire season provides the following services

- Activation- Calibration- Maintenance- Mothballing of Weather Stations

All our weather stations are removed during the summer season toreduce damage

DATA LOGGING & RETRIEVAL METHOD

Stored on PC and backed up on external hard drives

- Average Fire Season- 5 Months- 153 Days- The WINWIS and Davis Data is backed up - We have 20 years worth of data captured

Remote Based Weather Stations Have Modems for Data Transfer viaCell Phone (Mobile)

Network Dispatch Based Stations Data is Transferred Through PC Links

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION