Stating The Obvious - Weather Advisories

[entropychaser]

For the last day or so, dispatchers have been giving out high wind advisories to chiefs in the field. Not to brag, but when I'm outside I can tell right away that it's....snowing, raining, windy, etc. Who is this supposed to help?

In his first book Leo Stapelton related when he was a Deputy Chief that the Fire Alarm Office on The Fenway would periodically announce the ambient temperature. Leo observed that the last thing some ice covered jake needed was to be reminded that it was 7 degrees below zero.

In the late 1970's Joe Rizzo had the Philadelphia dispatcher announce some emergency driving safety message from time to time. Is there some Philly guy here that remembers what it was?

 

[1951truck]

Guessing that this came as a result of the Staten Island 4 Alarm fire where the members were injured in a wind impacted fire.

It basically gives the responding companies a heads up to use extra caution while operating under windy conditions.

Sometimes you might not feel a steady wind but it might hit you unexpectedly, the advisory announcement gives you the extra awareness.

 

[XPFD3]

entropychaser, the program you referenced in Philly were called RADIO QUIPS. There were a bunch of different quips most of which were about safe driving and apparatus operation. I remember "wet leaves make road surfaces slippery as glass" and "you can't do the job if you don't get there". I don't think the dispatchers working last out had to do the quips. Hope this helps.

 

[t123ken]

A man once said:
"You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows."
and soon before that he also said
"Better stay away from those that carry around a fire hose."

 

[entropychaser]

entropychaser, the program you referenced in Philly were called RADIO QUIPS. There were a bunch of different quips most of which were about safe driving and apparatus operation. I remember "wet leaves make road surfaces slippery as glass" and "you can't do the job if you don't get there". I don't think the dispatchers working last out had to do the quips. Hope this helps.

Thanks- for the memory. Seems that for guys that are "heads up" it's faintly insulting. But repetition never hurt anyone.

 

[LaurenSkye]

Could this possibly be something that's for the record? Since radio traffic is recorded maybe if there's a problem it's on the record that there were high winds and that crews were made aware of it. Do they also announce wind direction? That can play a roll in which exposures are most at risk as well as where firefighters should and should not stage.

 

[Mike M]

They’ve been stating the wind advisory even at times that the National Weather Service did not have one in effect. One day there was a 7mph breeze.

 

[KAZMAN]

This is all about wind driven fires and awareness. Thing Vandalia Ave, the fire in Brooklyn last year and was a LODD, Staten Island and most recently Queens. This is necessary and makes total sense! FDNY and Rescue 1 Capt. Ceriello has put a lot of effort into wind-driven fires, flow path, fire behavior, etc.

 

[entropychaser]

No one questions the danger of wind-driven or "wrong-way" fires. Announcing such fires can exist is of little help. How about a "weather CIDS"? Provide the chief with hyperlocal data- wind direction and speed, temperature, relative humidity and local lightening, tornado, and wind change potential. The US Forest Service and CalFire are already voracious consumers of such information.

Drivers can now use apps like Waze for traffic info. Around here, the County Flood District provides numerous real-time rain and flood gauge data sites on the internet (I use flood gauge site 1090 all the time). A lot of people have wireless weather stations that can be dumped onto the internet. Seems like the US Weather Service could help out too.

 

[mack]

Staten Island (or Richmond) used to get a weather Brush Fire Index back in the late 1960s-1970s determined daily to prepare for anticipated heavy brush fire days in spring and fall brush seasons. This was used to preposition Brooklyn and Manhattan engine companies in SI early in the day. There were boxes established to move substantial numbers of companies to selected SI firehouses.

E 164/ L 84 staging area 1970s:




A CP was established and engines would be assigned individually or in teams w/BCs to incidents.




WNYF 1962







WNYF 1968