Purpose
This application is intended for use by natural resources professionals who manage wilderness areas that must be periodically burned
to control invasive species and maintain the natural life cycle. Because prescribed burning must be carefully controlled, officials
must monitor the weather for favorable conditions. The map summarizes weather conditions at defined sites, telling at a glance whether
burning may be possible on a given day.
How to use
It is imagined that the home page with the map will be used the most. The color of the marker indicates general advice. Details can be
viewed by clicking on the marker. New burn areas may be created on the map by clicking on the desired area. The other pages
of the website are intended for testing, but do perform actual operations on the data. Users may find these pages helpful for
managing data, as not all functions are available from the map.
A day is defined as the range from 6:00 am CDT to 6:00 pm CDT. Weather conditions in this time interval are used to determine suitability
for burning. (The exact calculation needs refinement.) The wind direction 0° corresponds to North, and advances clockwise.
The data validator accepts any geographic coordinates in the box surrounding the continental US, although the NWS does not provide data for
all points within this box. Please use good judgment in selecting locations within the actual US borders. A tolerance of 15° is
built into the calculation of wind direction. (For testing, the tolerance is 360°).
Acceptable values
| Name | Latitude | Longitude | Humidity | Temperature | Wind direction | Wind speed |
| letters, numbers, space, - and _ | 24 to 50 degrees, 4 decimal places | -170 to -65, 4 decimal places | 0 to 100 %, min < max | -40 to 50 °C, min < max | 0 to 360°, 0° is North | 0 to 100 m/s |