NWS Eureka, CA 2026 Fire Weather Zone Changes

Effective March 3, 2026, NWS Eureka, CA will reconfigure fire weather zones in Northwest California. Currently, ten fire weather forecast zones cover northwestern California, and they cover large areas with highly variable weather patterns. Current zones also do not follow county boundaries, which can lead to small portions of a county being warned when the primary threat is in other areas. 

To remedy these issues and provide more detailed, accurate, and specialized fire weather forecasts, we are expanding from 10 fire weather zones to 21. The new zones were drawn leveraging stark changes in fuels, topography and weather while respecting county boundaries. No physical boundaries such as USFS borders and primary responsibility areas were also considered. New zones were made in close contact with local fire management agencies at the federal, tribal, state, and local levels.  Maps comparing the previous zones and the new zones are shown below.

                      Old Zones       ► ► ► ► ► ► ► ► ►      New Zones

List of all old zone numbers and names:

• CAZ201 North Coast

• CAZ202 Coastal Mendocino

• CAZ203 Upper Smith

• CAZ204 Lower Middle Klamath

• CAZ211 Hoopa

• CAZ212 Van Duzen/Mad River

• CAZ264 Lake County Portion of Lake/Napa/Sonoma RU

• CAZ276 Interior Mendocino

• CAZ277 W Mendocino NF/E Mendocino Unit

• CAZ283 Trinity

List of all new zone numbers and names:

• CAZ401: Coastal Del Norte

• CAZ402: Interior Del Norte Including the Smith River Valley

• CAZ403: Northeastern Interior Humboldt and Southwestern Siskiyou Including Orleans

• CAZ404: Northern Coastal Humboldt

• CAZ405: Northwestern Interior Humboldt Including the Bald Hills

• CAZ406: Eastern Interior Humboldt Including Willow Creek and Hoopa

• CAZ407: Southwestern Humboldt Including the King Range and the Eel River Valley

• CAZ408: Southeastern Interior Humboldt Including Kneeland and Alderpoint

• CAZ409: Northwestern Trinity Including Salyer and Big Bar

• CAZ410: Northeastern Trinity Including Trinity Lake

• CAZ411: Eastern Trinity Including Weaverville and Hayfork

• CAZ412: Southern Trinity Including Ruth Lake and the Yolla Bollys

• CAZ413: Coastal Mendocino

• CAZ414: Northern Interior Mendocino Including Leggett and Willits

• CAZ415: Northeastern Interior Mendocino Including Covelo

• CAZ416: Southeastern Interior Mendocino Including Ukiah and Potter Valley

• CAZ417: Southwestern Interior Mendocino Including Booneville

• CAZ418: Northern Lake Including Gravelly Valley

• CAZ419: Eastern Lake Including Clearlake and Middletown

• CAZ420: Southern Lake Including Cobb and Konocti

• CAZ421: Western Lake Including Lakeport

Only fire weather products (such as Red Flag Warnings) will be effected by this changes. Other public products (such as the public zone forecasts, winter storm warning, wind warnings, etc.) use other zones and are not affected by this change. Products affected by the fire weather zone changes are shown below:

• Fire Weather Forecast (FWFEKA)

• Fire Weather Watches and Red Flag Warnings (RFWEKA)

• Fire Warning  (FRWEKA)

The official service change notice can be found here.

If you have any questions or comments about this change, please contact:

Ryan Aylward
Warning Coordination Meteorologist
NWS Eureka, CA
ryan.aylward@noaa.gov

Or 

James White
Fire Weather Team Lead
NWS Eureka, CA
james.h.white@noaa.gov