Additional Heavy Rain and Flooding Concerns in Central Texas; Tropical Storm Chantal to Impact the Coastal Carolinas

Heavy rainfall and flooding concerns remain for today across Central Texas and the Hill Country, with scattered thunderstorms expected this afternoon and evening. Tropical Storm Chantal has formed and will bring heavy rainfall and flooding concerns to portions of the coastal Carolinas. Life-threatening surf and rip currents are expected from the Southeast to Mid-Atlantic. Read More >

Implementing Improved Fire Weather Zone Coverage for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Effective Thursday August 6, 2015 at 800 AM Atlantic Standard Time (AST) or 1200 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the National Weather Service Forecast Office (WFO) in San Juan, Puerto Rico will adjust its current fire weather zones for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This adjustment will provide improved fire weather warning and forecast services for PR and the USVI. The NWS Weather Forecast Office in San Juan, Puerto Rico, will reconfigure the fire weather forecast zones for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to align with the boundaries of the National Fire Danger Rating Areas. Specifically, fire weather zone PRZ014 was split into two zones, PRZ014 Southeast Coastal Plains and PRZ027 Southwest Coastal Plains and Mona Island.

Table 1: WFO San Juan products affected by the fire weather zone changes effective August 6, 2015.

PRODUCT NAME	WMO HEADING	AWIPS ID
FIRE WEATHER PLANNING FORECAST	FNCA52 TJSJ	FWFSJU
FIRE WEATHER WATCH/RED FLAG WARNING	WWCA82 TJSJ	RFWSJU
RANGELAND/GRASSLAND FIRE DANGER STATEMENT	FNCA52 TJSJ	RFDSJU

Customers must reprogram hardware and software to continue processing products in Table 1.

WFO San Juan Fire Weather Zones prior to August 6, 2015 (Current)

WFO San Juan Fire Weather Zones effective August 6, 2015

An updated zone map shapefile containing the new boundaries for these and other fire weather zones is available for download at: Fire Weather Forecast_Zones

For questions about these changes, please contact:

Gary Votaw Paul Witsaman

Fire Weather Program Leader Regional Fire Weather Program Manager

NWS San Juan NWS SRH

(787) 253-4586 X 242 (817) 978-1100 X 116

Email: Email: