Wind is one of the major factors involved in predicting forest fire behavior. Fire behavior models require wind information to predict fire spread in various fuel types and within forest stands in complex terrain. The means of providing the necessary wind data in remote areas, however, are presently not available in usable forms. Studies are now underway at the Northern Forest Fire Laboratory to develop ways of estimating or predicting wind velocities on a local scale of a fire given various topographic and vegetative conditions.