NOUS41 KWBC 101818

PNSWSH

 

Service Change Notice 11-09

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

125 PM EST Thu Feb 10 2011

 

TO:       Subscribers:
          -Family of Services
          -NOAA Weather Wire Service
          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
          -NOAAPORT

          Other NWS partners and NWS employees

 

FROM:     Eli Jacks

          Chief, Fire and Public Weather Services Branch

 

SUBJECT:  Changes to the Boundaries of the Fire Weather Forecast

          Zones in Phillips, Valley, Petroleum and Garfield

          Counties Montana Effective March 15 2011

 

Effective Tuesday, March 15, 2011, at 1200 Coordinated Universal

Time (UTC), the NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Glasgow

(GGW), MT, will split the Phillips and Valley Counties (MTZ119)

and the Charles M Russell Refuge and Petroleum and Garfield

Counties (MTZ121) fire weather forecast zones zone into four new

fire weather forecast zones.

 

The purpose of the change is to improve services for WFO GGW

fire weather partners by better associating zone areas with

weather regimes.  The split of the Phillips and Valley Counties

(MTZ119) and the Charles M Russell Refuge and Petroleum and

Garfield Counties (MTZ121) fire weather forecast zones will

separate the Charles M Russell National Wildlife Refuge and the

surrounding more rugged terrain into its own zone. The Little

Rocky Mountains and surrounding higher terrain will also form a

new fire weather forecast zone. Finally, the remaining two zones

will encompass northern Valley and northern Phillips counties

and southern Petroleum and southern Garfield counties,

respectively.

 

Once this change has been implemented, the fire weather zone

numbers, names and geographical descriptors in Table 1 will be

used in all fire weather forecast products issued by WFO GGW.

Montana fire weather forecast zones MTZ119 and MTZ121 will no

longer be used.

 

Table 1

 

New Fire       New Fire         Old Fire        Old Fire

 Weather Zone   Weather Zone     Weather Zone    Weather Zone

 Number         Name             Number          Name

-------------  -------------    -------------   -------------

MTZ134         Northern Valley   MTZ119         Phillips and

                And Northern                     Valley Counties

                Phillips Counties

 

MTZ134 Physical Description:  This zone consists of Phillips and

Valley counties in northeast Montana north of Beaver and Willow

Creeks, excluding portions of the Fort Belknap Indian

Reservation lands in Phillips County, and excluding portions of

Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Valley County.  This also

includes portions of the Lewistown District of the Bureau of

Land Management (BLM), Montana state lands, and national

wildlife refuge lands.

 

mtz135         The Little        MTZ119         Phillips and

                Rockies                          Valley Counties

 

MTZ135 Physical Description:  This zone is defined on the north

by the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation boundary, on the west by

the Phillips County line, to the south by the Charles M Russell

National Wildlife Refuge boundary, and to the east by Highway

191. This zone includes the portions of the Lewistown District

of the BLM and Montana state lands.

 

MTZ136         The Lower         MTZ121         Charles M.

                Missouri River                   Russell Refuge

                Breaks including                 and Petroleum

                the Charles M Russell            and Garfield

                National Wildlife                Counties

                Refuge

 

MTZ136 Physical Description:  This zone is defined on the north

by Beaver and Willow Creeks, on the west by Highway 191 and the

western Charles M Russell National Wildlife Refuge boundary, on

the south by Dovetail Creek, the Middle Fork of Lodge Pole Creek

and Big Dry Creek, and on the east by the eastern Charles M

Russell National Wildlife Refuge boundary. This zone includes

the entire Charles M Russell National Wildlife Refuge north and

South of the Missouri River, as well as portions of the

Lewistown and the Miles City Districts of the BLM, and Montana

state lands.

 

MTZ137         Southern          MTZ121         Charles M.

                Petroleum and                    Russell Refuge

                Southern Garfield                and Petroleum

                Counties                         and Garfield

                                                 Counties

 

MTZ137 Physical Description:  This zone consists of Petroleum

and Garfield counties in northeast Montana south of Dovetail

Creek, the Middle Fork of Lodge Pole Creek and Big Dry Creek.

This also includes portions of the Lewistown District and the

Miles City District of the BLM and Montana state lands.

 

Graphical depictions of the old and new fire weather forecast

zones are online at:

 

    http://www.weather.gov/os/notification/images/ggw-old.png

 

and

 

    http://www.weather.gov/om/notification/images/new_fwz.JPG

 

NWS watch, warning and forecast products affected by these

changes are:

 

For Fire Weather Zones MTZ134, MTZ135, MTZ136 and MTZ137:

 

PRODUCT                    WMO HEADING    AWIPS ID

------------------------   -----------    -------

Fire Weather Watch         WWUS83 KGGW    RFWGGW

 

Red Flag Warning           WWUS83 KGGW    RFWGGW

 

Fire Weather Planning      FNUS53 KGGW    FWFGGW

  Forecast

 

National Fire Danger       FNUS86 KGGW    FWMGGW

  Rating System Forecast

 

NWS partners will need to make necessary changes to their

communication systems to accommodate these fire weather forecast

zone changes.

 

A shapefile of the new fire weather forecast zones for WFO GGW

is available for download at:

 

    www.nws.noaa.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/firezone.htm

 

For more information, please contact:

 

    Tanja Fransen

    Warning Coordination Meteorologist

    National Weather Service

    101 Airport Road

    Glasgow Mt 59230

    Phone: 406-228-2850

    Email: tanja.fransen@noaa.gov

 

National Service Change Notices are online at:

 

    http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

 

$$

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