Description
The USDA Forest Service stores fire occurrence data in a relational data base for planning, analysis, and other purposes. Weather observations are stored in the same data base for all five federal land management agencies and some state wildland agencies. Ready access to fire occurrence and weather data enables managers, planners, and operations personnel to make informed decisions based upon the past and projections into the future. This presentation discusses the design philosophy behind the data base, issues dealing with the care and feeding of the data base and data stored there, and how data helps field users.