Weather is one of the most important factors in determining fire behavior. Fire personnel must constantly be aware of the weather to safely and effectively manage fire.
Zion RAWS (Remote Automated Weather Station) in Zion Canyon
Zion National Park has a remote automated weather station (RAWS) located in Zion Canyon (4000 ft.), near the Watchman residential area. This station is one of 1,500 such stations located throughout the United States (mainly in the west) that monitor weather data to assist land management agencies with a variety of projects – monitoring air quality, rating fire danger and providing information for research applications.
Most of the RAWS are owned by wildland fire agencies and are used to predict fire behavior and monitor fuels. They are placed in locations where wildland fires often occur. Each unit operates on 8-10 watts of power and has a battery that lasts approximately three years. RAWS units collect and store data every ten minutes and then transmit this data to a computer system at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho via the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). The GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On average, this data is transmitted every 60 minutes, but they can be programmed to transmit anywhere from 30 minutes to many hours. These data are automatically forwarded to several other computer systems including the Weather Information Management System (WIMS) and the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nevada.
Weather is the most critical factor affecting fire behavior and therefore firefighter safety -- that's what makes RAWS units so important to fire managers. The weather station broadcasts weather observations and can be called over the radio by sending out a tone. If there are parameters that are critical to fireline safety, you can program that parameter for a variety of elements including wind shifts, humidity change, or sudden temperature rise or decline. If one of these parameters reaches a pre-determined critical level, RAWS will send out a tone to alert firefighters and thus increase the safety factor.
For more general information on RAWS visit RAWS (nifc.gov).
Last updated: November 11, 2021
Park footer
Contact Info
Mailing Address:
Zion National Park
1 Zion Park Blvd.
Springdale,
UT
84767
Phone:
435-772-3256
If you have questions, please email zion_park_information@nps.gov.
Listen to recorded information by calling anytime 24 hours a day.
Rangers answer phone calls from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. MT, but a ranger may not answer if they are already speaking with someone else.
05_r.jpg?maxwidth=650&autorotate=false&quality=78&format=webp "Lightning is a common cause of natural wildfire")