With updates to the National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) to be implemented over the next two years, fire managers in Alaska and the Lake States need to learn about the most important revisions. Changes to fine fuel moistures estimates in the US systems are already implemented for some fire behavior analyses in the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS). A new approach to evaluating greenup, curing and live fuel moisture is already implemented in WFDSS as well. Called the Live Fuel Index (LFI), users should understand how it represents live fuel moisture trends in these northern landscapes. These updated models and tools will be examined in the context of Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) Fire Weather Index (FWI) and Fire Behavior Prediction (FBP) system tools already in use.