About this Site

This fire-focused website includes monitoring tools such as the Fire Weather Intelligence Portal, information about climate-related factors affecting fire in North Carolina, and other documentation and resources useful for the fire community.

Our fire weather work at the State Climate Office began in 2011 with our initial collaboration with the NC Forest Service. To help meet their needs for comprehensive weather and fire danger monitoring information across North Carolina, we developed the Fire Weather Intelligence Portal. In the ten years since then, development of the Portal has continued, including an expansion across the southeastern US supported by the USDA Southeast Regional Climate Hub.

The Portal has become a key resource for foresters, burn bosses, and land managers in maintaining awareness of current conditions and wildfire risk, and helping to plan prescribed burns and monitor local conditions throughout a burn event. To support these needs, the Portal has grown over time to include additional forecast products from the National Weather Service and innovative new environmental indicators such as the DENSCA index and real-time fine fuel moisture content.

Fitting with our mission to provide information and decision support to climate-sensitive sectors across the state, the State Climate Office is a permanent member of the NC Fire Environment Committee, which makes statewide recommendations for fire management and monitoring based on the best available science and data.

To this end, our office is also involved in research and analysis of organic soil moisture conditions, high-resolution forecast datasets, and future climate trends for fire danger and prescribed burning availability. These ongoing subprojects are supported by NC Forest Service and its statewide and regional partners. We will add more information about those results as they become available.