Rebuild:LA Episode 009 - A Particularly Dangerous Situation with Rich Thompson from the NWS

Rich Thompson is an incident meteorologist (IMET) with the National Weather Service, which means he predicts weather during disasters to help first responders during the active phase of an incident. He was on the ground during the Palisades Fire and describes the conditions in early January as a "once in a career" weather event. He chatted with Cameron Barrett about what his experience was like at the Command Post of the Palisades Fire and how his forecasts directed firefighters and air assets during the fire fight.

Resources:

• National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - https://www.noaa.gov/
• National Weather Service LA/Oxnard - https://www.weather.gov/lox/
• A Day in the Life of an IMET - https://www.weather.gov/news/imet-article

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 3:10 IMETs
• 4:20 A Particularly Dangerous Situation
• 6:40 Santa Anas + Mountain Waves
• 10:30 Relative Humidity and Fuel
• 12:20 Are These Fires New to Southern California?
• 14:20 Air Quality is Another Disaster
• 16:45 At the Command Post
• 18:32 Weather and Air Operations
• 20:37 Forecasting the Weather at a Campaign Fire
• 24:15 Weather Stations
• 26:10 Weather Created by a Fire
• 27:45 The Morning Briefing
• 30:05 The Future of Southern California Fires