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Weather, topography, and vegetation (fuels) are key influences on a fire. They determine fire behavior such as how fast a fire burns, how hot it burns, and whether the fire may produce and send embers.

The most variable of these three influences is weather because it can change not only from day to day but hour to hour. As a result, incident management teams often have a meteorologist assigned to them. Incident Meteorologists are forecasters who have been specially trained and certified to provide weather information at a fire location. The weather data and historical weather patterns they provide to the team not only play an important role in tactical operations but contribute to firefighter safety during changing weather conditions.

Darren Clabo, Ph.D., is the Incident Meteorologist assigned to Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team Two and has been with the team for 13 years. When he’s not working fire, Darren is the South Dakota State Fire Meteorologist and an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City,

Click on the related link below to meet Darren, listen to him describe his work, and get a glimpse of the knowledge he shares with personnel assigned to the fire.