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Pattern NC mountain fires & Drought

Good call today to just let the mountain burn down. Too dangerous. Goal is to save lower elevations away from the MTN. FAE89622-5D13-4391-91F0-FA88FD0E99F7.jpeg
 
? Stupid. They changed criteria for other Watches/warnings how about add criteria if a major wildfire is CURRENT then red flag warning can be issued in the state of NC. ?
 
BirdManDoomW said:
? Stupid. They changed criteria for other Watches/warnings how about add criteria if a major wildfire is CURRENT then red flag warning can be issued in the state of NC. ?
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I'd be willing to bet that 70% of the general public has no idea what a red flag warning is. Just quickly scanning local news sites here there's not a mention of increased fire danger on their main pages that I can find (ABC 11 has it on their weather page). Im not sure if they mentioned it on air but at some point red flag or not the responsibility falls on the local news to push the message, the nws has put out a number of special weather statements regarding the fire danger recently.
 
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SD said:
I'd be willing to bet that 70% of the general public has no idea what a red flag warning is. Just quickly scanning local news sites here there's not a mention of increased fire danger on their main pages that I can find (ABC 11 has it on their weather page). Im not sure if they mentioned it on air but at some point but red flag or not the responsibility falls on the local news to push the message, the nws has put out a number of special weather statements regarding the fire danger recently.
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I agree, problem is I think local media don't really pay attention either until there is an actual "warning" of some kind. They rarely pay attention to the special weather statements, they really should and get that word out imho (at least for those who still watch any media lol)
 
Officially called the Grindstone fire now if you wanna update the thread @MNGR. Also 0% contained latest update.
 
BirdManDoomW said:
? Stupid. They changed criteria for other Watches/warnings how about add criteria if a major wildfire is CURRENT then red flag warning can be issued in the state of NC. ?
Click to expand...

While some would think this is crazy birdman talk, I actually think you're on the right track about this one. If there is an active fire ongoing, a warning for said fire being disseminated by the NWS (or some other NOAA entity) is needed and if said fire is clearly continuing to grow even in the absence of a red flag warning (not meeting the criteria), it should be overridden. And obviously an event like this shows there are flaws in those criteria and we need to do more research on it and also make it more flexible. If I was working the desk there, I'd personally throw a red flag warning out for at least Surry & Stokes counties given the current dire situation on Pilot Mtn. While oversaturation is a valid counterpoint to this, additional avenues for people to receiving life-saving information in cases like these would probably be more beneficial than not in helping get the word out. Communicating said information would be a challenge (and local news outlets should be more inclined to talk about red flag warnings when they are issued), but these deficiencies with red flag warnings are far from some of the biggest hurdles currently facing NWS.
 
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