This manual documents the procedures for estimating the rate of forward spread, intensity, flame length, and size of fires burning in forests and rangelands. It contains instructions for obtaining fuel and weather data, calculating fire behavior, and interpreting the results for application to actual fire problems. Potential uses include fire prediction, fire planning, dispatching, prescribed fires, and monitoring managed fires. Included are sections that deal with fuel model selection, fuel moisture, wind, slope, calculations with nomograms, TI-59 calculations, point source, line fire, interpretations of outputs, and growth predictions.

[This publication is referenced in the "Synthesis of knowledge of extreme fire behavior: volume I for fire managers" (Werth et al 2011).]