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-------- Original Message --------
282
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@xxxxxxxx
National Service Change Notices are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
$$
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